The effect of integrating nursing home care with medical rehabilitation for patients with senile dementia / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the effect of integrating nursing home service with rehabilitation therapy for persons with senile dementia.Methods:One hundred elderly persons with senile dementia were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, each of 50. Both groups were given routine nursing care, while the observation group was additionally provided with rehabilitation training. Before and after the intervention, both groups were evaluated using the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), the Barthel index and QOL-AD.Results:After the intervention, the average MMSE, Barthel index and QOL-AD scores of both groups were significantly improved, with the average improvement in the observation group significantly greater.Conclusions:Rehabilitation training can effectively improve the cognitive functioning, performance in the activities of daily living and life quality of persons with senile dementia.