Interventions to improve mood and/or social interaction in residents of long-term care facilities with dementia: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To review the available evidence on non-pharmacological interventions to improve mood, quality-of-life (QoL)or social interactions in residents of long-term care facilities with dementia. METHODS: We searched Medline, Emcare, and PsycINFO using keywords: dementia, long-term care, mood, QoL, and social interaction. The search included long-term care residents clinically diagnosed with dementia and the methodological strength was evaluated using predefined criteria and tools. RESULTS: The final synthesis included 50 published studies with significant heterogeneity. There was more evidence for green therapy, small-scale living, Snoezelen, Storytelling, group exercise, reminiscence and Montessori activities. However, there was minimal evidence for dementia café, music, recreation time, art activities, staff wearing street-clothes, play activities, humour, traditional food, emotion oriented, simulated presence, computer, wellbeing-enhancing occupation, MultiTANDEM Plus, multisensory, person-centred, animal assisted and Staff Training interventions. CONCLUSION: Multiple non-pharmacological interventions showed promise in enhancing mood, QoL, and social interaction. Future research could explore long-term effects of therapy, increase sample size of patients, and improve generalizability of therapy.