A meta‐analysis of person‐centered care interventions for improving health outcomes in persons living with dementia

BackgroundPerson‐centered care emphasizes the importance of valuing and supporting the humanness of a person living with dementia as compared to focusing heavily on disease symptom management and treatment. The state of the evidence and outcomes from person‐centered care is unclear and is an important knowledge gap to address informed evidence‐based care for persons living with dementia.AimsTo synthesize the evidence on the efficacy of person‐centered care in improving health outcomes in people living with dementia.MethodsOur search using the following databases: Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, COCHRANE library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PubMed, and Google Scholar. The methodology quality of the included studies was assessed using a revised Cochrane risk‐of‐bias tool for randomized trials. Meta‐analyses were performed using the DerSimonian and Laird random effects model to investigate the effectiveness of person‐centered care on improving health outcomes in persons living with dementia.ResultsSeventeen trials were included in this systematic review and meta‐analysis. Person‐centered care implementation was found to improve cognitive function (pooled SMD: 0.22; 9CRD420223808975% CI [0.04, 0.41], p = .02) in persons living with dementia, although outcomes including the impact of the care model on activities of daily living, agitation, depression, and quality of life remain inconclusive.Linking Evidence to ActionPerson‐centered care improves the cognitive function of persons living with dementia, which is clinically meaningful and should not be ignored or overlooked in delivering evidence‐based care to this population. The findings of this study emphasize the importance of person‐centered care implementation among people living with dementia as an approach in improving health outcomes particularly on cognitive function improvement. Person‐centered care emphasizes the personhood of individuals living with dementia while respecting their needs, values, and beliefs and is identified as a preferred model of delivering dementia care in all settings as a non‐pharmacological approach.