Introduction
Pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapies can both be important in regulating the behaviors of individuals with dementia in nursing homes. However, the treatment outcomes of non-mediational methods, such as art therapy, can vary greatly and require extensive research. Moreover, comparing their effects over ten weeks in a particular age group can produce different outcomes. Hence, it is necessary to review how non-pharmacological methods, compared to pharmacological interventions, impact behaviors in 60-64-year-old dementia patients residing in nursing homes over ten weeks.
Instruments
A select number of instruments will be used for the abovementioned research. The first is the BIMS score, which utilized 10 minutes of pre- and post-assessment. The BIMS is used for this research as it has strong internal consistency, reliability, validity, and effectiveness in nursing home settings (Marks et al., 2021).
The study group—60–64-year-old dementia patients living in a nursing facility—will be the subject of the investigation during 10 weeks of intervention. Moreover, the data will be recorded in the Art and Music Observation table for each patient. The collected info will help measure the changes in patients’ behaviors and help understand the impact of art therapy on dementia patients. Hence, the two instruments for the study are the BIMS and the Art and Music Observation table.
Data Collection
Firstly, reviewing the existing research on the effectiveness of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments (PTs and NPTs) is crucial. A recent study by Profyri et al. showed that while PT improves patients’ behavior, survival chances, and cognitive function, additional data is needed to prove the effectiveness of NPTs (2022).
Consequently, a literature review by Luo et al. has shown that exercise therapy, cognitive stimulation treatment, and enriched environment have a positive behavioral and cognitive effect on dementia patients (2023). These approaches are similar in that they have elements of art treatment and art-related activities, such as creative tasks, dancing, and singing (Luo et al., 2023). Hence, recent research on NPTs shows some positive effects in improving the cognitive and behavioral functions of elderly dementia patients.
However, more data is needed to ensure that art therapy is effective in dementia treatment. Hence, using the previously mentioned methods, the future study will collect info from 60–64-year-old patients with dementia residing in a nursing facility over 10 weeks. The study will not collect any additional information apart from the part from the info that the instruments were tailored to gather. Hence, a possible problem will be the study’s limited scope, given that only data will be collected through the two data collection methods.
Data Analysis Plan
The study’s collected information must be analyzed thoroughly for the research to contribute to the scientific discourse. All of the instruments are tailored to measure the changes in cognitive function and behavior of participants. Therefore, the collected information will help track the changes in patients’ behaviors and, in the end, help in understanding the effects of art therapy on people with dementia, giving statistical significance.
The data analysis will have a confidence interval calculated after the data collection, which is presumed to be 95%. The “output” of tests will answer the PICOT, showing how NPTs (I) affect the behaviors of 60-64-year-old dementia patients in a nursing institution (P, O), compared to PTs (C) over 10 weeks (T). Hence, the data will be refined by the methods used to record it, allowing it to have high statistical significance.
Conclusion
Therefore, NPT and art therapy, in particular, have the potential to improve the mental well-being of dementia patients significantly. Though PT has been shown to enhance patients’ behavior, cognitive function, and chances of survival, additional research is required to demonstrate the efficacy of NPTs. Studies have shown that select NPTs—all of which incorporate components of art therapy—benefit dementia patients. Hence, it is necessary to conduct a study using proven methods and instruments to prove that art therapy effectively treats elderly dementia patients.
References
Luo, G., Zhang, J., Song, Z., Wang, Y., Wang, X., Qu, H., Wang, F., Liu, C. & Gao, F. (2023) Effectiveness of non-pharmacological therapies on cognitive function in patients with dementia—A network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Front. Aging Neurosci. 15, 1-12. Web.
Marks, T. S., Giles, G. M., Al-Heizan, M. O., & Edwards, D. F. (2021). How Well Does the Brief Interview for Mental Status Identify Risk for Cognition Mediated Functional Impairment in a Community Sample? Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation, 3(1). Web.
Profyri, E., Leung, P., Huntley, J., & Orgeta, V. (2022). Effectiveness of treatments for people living with severe dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled clinical trials. Ageing research reviews, 82. Web.