Pilot Testing a Coaching Intervention to Improve Certified Nursing Assistants' Dressing of Nursing Home Residents.

The purpose of the current study was to identify initial effects of a coaching training intervention using Level of Assistance (LoA) strategies compared with traditional lecture techniques on the appropriateness of LoA use by certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and independence of dressing of nursing home residents with dementia. Seventeen CNA-resident dyads participated in this pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT). Control and experimental group CNAs received a 25-minute traditional lecture.

Diagnostic accuracy of behavioral, activity, ferritin, and clinical indicators of restless legs syndrome.

Study Objectives: Lack of a valid diagnostic measure of restless legs syndrome (RLS) for persons with dementia, who do not have the cognitive ability to report complex symptoms, impedes RLS treatment and research in this population. The aim of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of a combination of indicators for identifying RLS that could eventually be used to diagnose RLS in persons with dementia.

Design: 3-day, prospective instrument validation.

Strength training, walking, and social activity improve sleep in nursing home and assisted living residents: randomized controlled trial.

Objectives: To compare the effects of physical resistance strength training and walking (E), individualized social activity (SA), and E and SA (ESA) with a usual care control group on total nocturnal sleep time in nursing home and assisted living residents.

Design: Pretest-posttest experimental design with assignment to one of four groups for 7 weeks: E (n=55), SA (n=50), ESA (n=41), and usual care control (n=47).

Setting: Ten nursing homes and three assisted living facilities.

Restless legs syndrome risk factors, behaviors, and diagnoses in persons with early to moderate dementia and sleep disturbance.

In this study, restless legs syndrome (RLS) risk factors, RLS-associated behaviors, and the ability to understand and answer an RLS diagnostic interview were investigated. In 23 older adults with early to moderate dementia and nighttime sleep disturbance, the most common risk factors for RLS were a periodic leg movement sleep index > 15 (54.55%), based on polysomnography, and use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (34.

Effects of behavioral interventions on disruptive behavior and affect in demented nursing home residents.

Background: Disruptive behaviors are prevalent in nursing home residents with dementia and often have negative consequences for the resident, caregiver, and others in the environment. Behavioral interventions might ameliorate them and have a positive effect on residents' mood (affect).

Objectives: This study tested two interventions-an activities of daily living and a psychosocial activity intervention-and a combination of the two to determine their efficacy in reducing disruptive behaviors and improving affect in nursing home residents with dementia.