Occupational therapy improves the daily functioning of patients with mild to moderate dementia, results of a randomized, controlled trial show.
“We believe that, in the long term, occupational therapy will result in less dependence on social and health care resources and less need for institutionalization,” reported Maud J.L. Graff, of the Research Group for Allied Health Care at University Medical Center Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and her associates (BMJ 2006 Nov. 17 [Epub doi:10.1136/bmj.39001.688843.BE]).
In the study, dementia patients were randomized to an occupational therapy treatment group (68) or to a control group (67). Study participants had to be aged 65 years or older, diagnosed with mild or moderate dementia, and cared for once a week or more by a primary caregiver.
At 6 weeks, those in the intervention group had statistically significant improvements over the controls on three tests. Patients in the therapy group had a mean score that was 1 point higher on the 8-point motor and process skills test and 10.9 points higher on the 44-point performance interview. Caregivers in the therapy group had a mean score 16.2 points higher on the 135-point competence questionnaire.
One limitation of the study was that it was not double blinded.