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

Background: Person-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. Aims: To synthesize the evidence on the efficacy of person-centered care in improving health outcomes in people living with dementia. Methods: Our 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. Results: Seventeen 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 Action: Person-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.