Effectiveness of DementiAbility Methods: The Montessori Way on agitation in long-term care home residents with dementia in Hong Kong
Corresponding Author
Ivo Yuen
Ching Chung Taoist Association of Hong Kong Limited, Ching Chung Care and Attention Home for the Aged, Yuen Long, Hong Kong
Correspondence
Ivo Yuen, Ching Chung Taoist Association of Hong Kong Limited, Ching Chung Care and Attention Home for the Aged, Yuen Long, Hong Kong.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorTimothy Kwok
Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
Jockey Club Institute of Ageing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Ivo Yuen
Ching Chung Taoist Association of Hong Kong Limited, Ching Chung Care and Attention Home for the Aged, Yuen Long, Hong Kong
Correspondence
Ivo Yuen, Ching Chung Taoist Association of Hong Kong Limited, Ching Chung Care and Attention Home for the Aged, Yuen Long, Hong Kong.
Email: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorTimothy Kwok
Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
Jockey Club Institute of Ageing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Objective
To investigate the effect of the DementiAbility Methods: The Montessori Way (DMMW) on agitation in long-term care home residents with dementia. The activities using the DMMW are hypothesized to reduce agitation in terms of its frequency and disruptiveness to greater extent than structured social activities as control.
Methods
Forty-six long-term care home residents with dementia were randomly allocated to receive the DMMW (n = 23) or structured social activities as control (n = 23). Each participant received six intervention sessions of 45 minutes each within 2 weeks, at long-term care home. Agitation in terms of frequency and disruptiveness before and after the intervention were compared.
Results
The results showed that the DMMW resulted in significant reduction in overall frequency and disruptiveness of agitation. The DMMW group had significant reduction in frequency and disruptiveness of verbal aggressive, physical nonaggressive, and physical aggressive behaviors after the intervention.
Conclusions
The present findings support the potential of the DMMW as a safe and efficacious therapeutic intervention for addressing agitation in long-term care home residents with dementia, relevant to Hong Kong culture.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.
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