review · Frontiers in Public Health
Dementia causes ongoing decline in memory, thought, and the capacity to live independently. Because of its complexity, multimodal non-pharmacological interventions are frequently advised, yet details concerning their ideal duration, frequency, and content have lacked clear evidence. A systematic review examined nineteen controlled trials evaluating these combined approaches for individuals living with dementia. Most evaluated interventions led to improvements, stability, or a slower rate of cognitive decline, demonstrating medium to large positive effects. Across the analysed studies, the typical intervention schedule involved one-hour sessions conducted over a median length of twelve weeks. The most common therapeutic elements combined physical exercise, music therapy, and targeted cognitive activities. The findings indicate that these multifaceted, non-drug interventions can benefit cognitive status, though further rigorous trials tracking repeated measurements are advised to clarify the combined impact of exercise, music, and cognitive training.
Dementia places a severe, progressive burden on individuals and healthcare systems by eroding cognitive capacity and self-reliance. Identifying effective non-drug therapies offers safer, supportive care pathways. By summarising evidence on intervention structures, such as twelve-week schedules combining physical exercise, music, and cognitive tasks, this research helps clinicians and carers understand which non-pharmacological approaches provide measurable cognitive benefits.
The findings can inform healthcare providers, memory clinics, and care homes seeking to develop structured wellness programmes for dementia care. As an evidence synthesis of controlled trials, the concepts are applied and tested, yet moving toward standardised care packages or digital therapeutic toolkits requires further high-quality randomised trials that validate the ideal mix of exercise, music, and cognitive activities.
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Introduction Dementia is a progressive brain degeneration characterized by a progressive deterioration in cognition and independent living capacity. Since dementia is a complex syndrome, multimodal non-pharmacological interventions (MNPIs) are highly recommended. Currently, there is less available evidence to describe the content, length, and frequency of multimodal interventions for cognitive function improvement for people with dementia (PWD). Method A comprehensive search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Medline international databases. The quality appraisal of the studies was done by the Cochrane risk of bias assessment tools. Results A total of 19 controlled trial studies were included. Most of the included studies reported that MNPIs resulted in improvement, stability, or attenuation of decline in cognitive function of PWD. The reported effectiveness of MNPIs on cognitive function ranged from medium (0.29 Cohen's d ) to large (2.02 Cohen's d ) effect sizes. The median duration of intervention was 12 weeks for a 1-h session. Conclusion This systematic review showed that MNPIs might improve people's cognitive functions for PWD. Physical exercise, music, and cognitive interventions were used in the content of multimodal interventions in a majority of the studies. Therefore, high-quality randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies with repeated-measured design on the combined effect of physical exercise, music, and cognitive intervention on cognitive function for PWD are recommended. Systematic Review Registration http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/ , identifier: CRD42020222065.
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DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.894930
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