Literature Review on Effective Intervention Methods for Enhancing the Understanding and Prevention of Dementia among Community-dwelling People

Abstract

  This study aimed to identify effective intervention methods for enhancing the understanding and prevention of dementia among community-dwelling people. The study undertakes a systematic review and categorizing of intervention methods to provide insights into effective approaches for dementia prevention within community settings. A comprehensive search was conducted for articles published between 2012 and July 2023 across Ichushi-Web, PubMed, and CINAHL databases, resulting in the extraction of 11 articles. These articles underwent meticulous examination, focusing on various aspects such as subject demographics, intervention techniques, evaluation criteria, and intervention outcomes. As a result, the intervention objectives were classified into two categories: awareness-raising support to promote understanding of dementia and preventive support for dementia. Furthermore, the intervention support for prevention of dementia was divided into two main categories: intervention support focused on improvement of cognitive function and intervention support focused on improvement of lifestyle. The results showed that the awareness-raising support was effective even when the intervention time was short. In the prevention support, the support focused on lifestyle improvement suggested the necessity of continuous individualized support, while the support focused on improvement of cognitive function suggested the difficulty of maintaining the effects of the intervention over a long period of time.