Where is the Evidence on Acoustic Considerations for Dementia Care Settings: A Scoping Review

Research Objectives: To provide up to date evidence on the acoustic considerations for dementia care settings, to support healthspan and quality of life.

Design: Scoping Review

Setting: Institutionalized settings to include assisted living, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, skilled nursing facilities, and other supported care environments.

Participants: Individuals living with dementia

Interventions: Per the nature of a scoping review, we are considering multiple levels of evidence and several aspects of the intervention of interest, to include the following: auditory environment, acoustic environment, or sound-based intervention or observation.

Main Outcome Measures: Cognitive, behavioral, or other health related outcomes relative to participants with dementia.

Results: The initial search was carried out by a librarian and yielded 1671 articles for screening after duplicates were removed. Title and abstract screening was carried out among 4 independent reviewers via Covidence review software. Of the initial 1671 articles, 101 were included for full text review. Full text review screening is ongoing. This will be followed by data extraction and the development of a thematic summary of the available evidence. We plan to complete this review prior to reporting at the conference.

Conclusions: We anticipate our findings to provide preliminary insight into the importance of acoustic environments and interventions in supporting the day-to-day functional needs of older adults living with dementia in supported contexts. This preliminary insight will be used to guide future, high level evidence, needed to further elucidate this aspect of care.

Author(s) Disclosures: N/A