The Effectiveness of Reminiscence Therapy in Improving Cognitive Functions And Psychological Wellbeing in Older Adults With Early Dementia - The Randomized Control Trial

Background:
Reminiscence therapy (RT) is a trending type of non-pharmacological intervention in dementia care. RT is using life histories recalling and re-experiencing the life events in older people in order to improve their psychological well-being through the volitional or non-volitional process of recollecting memories from their past.

Method:
Participants' selection inclusion criteria are: (a) aged 65 or above, (b) early stage of dementia that was screened by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) with scoring of 17-19, and (c) can read written instruction and consent. Participants were randomly assigned by block randomization with randomized blockprocedure. The participants attended eight group sessions, with each session lasting for 60 minutes.Sessions were administered two times a week over a 4-week period. Participants' depressive symptoms were evaluated by Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Subjective well-being (the cognitive components) was measured by Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), mood change as measured by Visual Analogue Mood Scale (VAMS). All these evaluation were conducted baseline, mid-way evaluation and post-evaluation by the registered Occupational Therapist.
Result:
Forty older people (29 male and 11 female) were eligible for the study. There was significant difference on depressive symptoms (p= .02, t=-2.38), mood change (p= .03, t=-3.38), but marginally significant in subjective well-being (p= .05, t=-1.03) between intervention and control group. Further analyses were conducted whether depressive symptoms and mood change effect individuals' subjective well-being. A two-way ANOVA revealed that there was not a statistically significant interaction between the effects of depressive symptoms and mood change (F(3, 16) = 1.242, p = .311). Simple main effects analysis showed that depressive symptoms did not have a statistically significant effect on subjective well-being (p = .975).Simple main effects analysis showed that mood change did have a statistically significant effect on subjective well-being (p < .000).

Conclusion:
The findings of this study affirmed the benefit of RT to older people with early stage of dementia through improving depressive symptoms, mood and marginally on their subjective well-being. The research data available support the inclusion of a structured RT as a part of the routine care given to older people.There are some limitations of our study.