De-cluttering may not help people with dementia
University of East Anglia
Researchers
studied whether people with dementia were better able to carry out tasks, such
as making a cup of tea, at home -- surrounded by their usual clutter -- or in a
clutter-free environment.
They
were surprised to find that participants with moderate dementia performed
better when surrounded by their usual clutter.
But
the different environments made no difference to people with mild and severe
dementia, who were able to perform at the same level in both settings.
Prof Eneida Mioshi, from UEA's School of Health Sciences, said: "The majority of people with dementia live in their own home and usually want to remain living at home for as long as possible.
"So
it's really important to know how people with dementia can be best supported at
home -- one possible route would be by adapting the physical environment to
best suit their needs.
"As
dementia progresses, people gradually lose their ability to carry out daily
tasks due to changes in their cognitive, perceptual and physical abilities.
Participation in daily tasks could then be improved by adapting the person's
environment.
"To
this end, we wanted to investigate the role of clutter in activity
participation, given the potential to use de-cluttering to support people with
dementia to continue to be independent.
"Environmental
clutter has been defined as the presence of an excessive number of objects on a
surface or the presence of items that are not required for a task.
"It
is generally assumed that a person with dementia will be better-able to carry
out daily tasks when their home space is tidy and clutter free.
"However
there has been very little research to really test this hypothesis.
"We
wanted to see whether clutter was negatively affecting people with dementia. So
we studied how people at different stages of dementia coped with carrying out
daily tasks at home, surrounded by their usual clutter, compared to in a
clutter-free setting -- a specially designed home research lab."
Occupational
therapist and PhD student Julieta Camino carried out the study with 65
participants who were grouped into those with mild, moderate and severe
dementia.
They
were asked to carry out daily tasks including making a cup of tea and making a
simple meal, both at their own home and at UEA's specially designed NEAT
research bungalow -- a fully furnished research facility that feels just like a
domestic bungalow.?
The
researchers evaluated performance of activities in both settings, and also
measured the amount of clutter in the participants' homes. Meanwhile the NEAT
home setting was completely clutter free.
Julieta
Camino, also from UEA's School of Health Sciences, said: "We thought that
the complete absence of clutter in our research bungalow would play a
beneficial role in helping people with dementia with daily living activities.
But we were wrong.
"We
were surprised to find that overall, people with moderate dementia, in
particular, performed daily tasks better at home -- even though their homes
were significantly more cluttered than our research bungalow."
"And
it didn't seem to make any difference how cluttered the participant's home
was," she added. "The only factor that contributed to how well they
could carry out tasks at home was their level of cognition -- with those with
severe dementia encountering the same difficulties to perform the tasks at home
and in the research bungalow."
This
research received funding from the Alzheimer's Society and National Institute
of Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration East of England (ARC
EoE) programme.
Sian
Gregory, Research Information Manager at Alzheimer's Society, said: "We
can sometimes make assumptions about what might help someone with dementia
who's living at home, like de-cluttering so they can concentrate on tasks like
making a cup of tea. But, as this study shows, our ideas might not always be
right.
"Challenging
assumptions is so important for carers to understand how to help someone with
dementia to live well in their environment. That's why the Alzheimer's Society
funds a variety of studies like this one to evaluate what actually works for
people living with dementia today, as well as finding treatments for the
future."