Letter to Kajiwara et al. ‘Letter in response to “Impacts of a multicomponent intervention programme on neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with dementia and psychological health of caregivers: a feasibility pilot study”’

Abstract

A systematic review reported that some correlations were found between pain treatments and reduced BPSD, but inconsistent findings were reported. 2 Our result is in line with previous finding. The BPSD severity of PWD participants in our study was very low value (median 3 in CG, 4 in IG) on the NPI-Q scale ranging from 0 to 36. And change scores in BPSD are too small to reach the significant difference between the two groups. Concerning the programme design, we agree with Dr Kaijiwar and his colleagues that incorporating knowledge of BPSD in the context of OA into the intervention may be useful and needs further investigation in future study.Self-management and regular exercise are the critical factors in knee OA management. 3,4 Considering outcomes measures of our programme, we measure their in-home exercise adherence by asking the caregivers about the PWD spending how much time on exercise per week. The results showed that the total duration of exercise per week in IG increased statistically significant (P < .022) after the intervention.And this result will be published elsewhere.In addition, in most of our caregiver participants, the full-time domestic helpers were delivering the home exercises. Whether this was a factor of better compliance is uncertain. We do not have enough family caregiver participants for comparison.

Effects of dance intervention on agitation and cognitive functioning of people living with dementia in institutional care facilities: Systematic review

“…The clinically meaningful change of cognitive function, taking MMSE as an example, depends on the baseline cognitive function of the participants. 85 A 1-point change on subjects whose baseline MMSE scores are high (i.e., [27][28][29][30] might not be considered clinically meaningful; however, for those whose MMSE scores at baseline are intermediate (i.e., 10-20), a 1-point change can be interpreted as substantial. 85 Experts consensus submitted that a 1 to 2 point change in MMSE test in a trial might be considered clinically important.…”

“…Management of neuropsychiatric symptoms is complex, and an effective approach entails the use of multicomponent interventions. 28 Dance is a preferred approach due to its composition, including the physical, cognitive, and social components of the training and the requirement of attention to the environment and music. 29 Other benefits include sensory stimulation and dance's function as a medium of communication.…”