The relation between mood, activity, and interaction in long-term dementia care

Figures & data

Table

Activity	Example
Care activity	Visit (para) medical personnel, (self-) care activities
Communication/social activity	Talking with others, making telephone call, helping others
Eating/drinking	Eating or drinking
Household activity	Doing household chores, cooking, gardening and caring for plants
Intellectual activity	Playing cards or games, doing (crossword) puzzles, reading, writing
Musical activity	Dancing, singing
Nature/outdoor activity	Walking outside, farming activity, activity related to pets
Outing/shopping	Excursion, outing with family
Purposeless behaviour	Repetitive behaviour
Sitting/lying	Sitting or lying (not sleeping) without being occupied in an activity
Sleeping purposively	Sleeping
Television/radio activity	Watching television or listening to the radio
Other activity	Activity related to beauty, spirituality, arts, sensory stimulation, walking, sports, smoking, etc.
Not observable	(For any reason)

Table 1. Sample characteristics.

	Total n = 115
Age, mean (SD)	83.8 (7.8)
Gender (female), %	75
Marital status (widowed), %	66
Months living in facility, mean (SD)	29.5 (22.7)
S-MMSE, mean (SD)	8.5 (6.9)

Note: SD = standard deviation.

Table 2. Activities and social interaction: frequency and associated mood score.

		Frequency	Mean mood score (SD*)
Engagement in any activity (%)	All activities together	73.1	5.0 (0.5)
Engagement in activity related to… (%)	Care	7.3	4.8 (0.7)
	Communication/social	19.7	5.0 (0.6)
	Eating/drinking	19.1	5.0 (0.3)
	Household	8.4	5.0 (0.3)
	Intellect	6.5	5.1 (0.3)
	Music	3.2	5.2 (0.5)
	Nature/outdoor	1.2	5.2 (0.5)
	Outing/shopping	3.6	5.5 (0.6)
	Purposeless behaviour	NA**	NA**
	Sleeping	NA**	NA**
	Sitting/lying	13.6	4.9 (0.4)
	Television/radio	7.6	5.0 (0.3)
	Other	9.8	4.9 (0.7)
	Not observable	NA**	NA**
No engagement in any activity (%)	All activities together	26.9	4.2 (0.4)
Location of activity (%)	Outside	7.6	5.1 (0.4)
	Inside	92.4	4.7 (0.6)
Social interaction (%)	Yes	33.5	5.0 (0.6)
	No	66.5	4.6 (0.5)
	One-way interaction	1.3	4.4 (1.0)

*SD = standard deviation, **NA = not applicable because: (1) engagement in this activity could not be assessed, or (2) engagement in this activity was not considered relevant.

Table 3. Activities and social interaction divided by mood scores.

		Mood
		Negative (score 1–3)	Neutral (score 4)	Positive (score 5–7)
Engagement in any activity (%)	All activities together	2.2	1.8	96.0
Engagement in activity related to… (%)	Care	5.7	2.6	91.8
	Communication/social	3.5	1.5	95.0
	Eating/drinking	1.3	1.2	97.5
	Household	0.4	1.6	98.0
	Intellect	0.2	0.9	98.8
	Music	0	0	100.0
	Nature/outdoor	1.6	0.0	98.4
	Outing/shopping	0.0	0.0	100.0
	Purposeless behaviour	NA*	NA*	NA*
	Sleeping	NA*	NA*	NA*
	Sitting/lying	3.4	3.3	93.4
	Television/radio	1.0	2.2	96.8
	Other	6.6	2.7	90.7
	Not observable	NA*	NA*	NA*
No engagement in any activity (%)	All activities together	1.0	82.6	16.3
Location of activity (%)	Outside	0.2	4.4	95.4
	Inside	2.3	26.0	71.7
Social interaction (%)	Yes	3.7	1.9	94.4
	No	1.5	35.4	63.0
	One-way interaction	25.5	11.7	62.8

*NA = not applicable because: (1) engagement in this activity could not be assessed, or (2) engagement in this activity was not considered relevant.

Table 4. Factors associated with mood: regression analysis (adjusted for gender, cognition, and type of long-term care facility).

			95% confidence interval
	Estimate	Standard error	Lower	Upper	P value
Engagement in activity	.712	.015	.741	.742	<.001
Location of activity	.126	.027	.070	.181	<.001
Social interaction	.118	.014	.090	.147	<.001