Effects of home-based interventions on cognitive performance in patients with dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: With increasing age, dementia is a common disease in the elderly population，especially Alzheimer's disease. Owing to the nature of the disease, the function of patients deteriorates, which places a heavy burden on the country and family. Home-based training programs have been shown to improve cognitive function in patients with dementia.

Objective: To examine the effects and methods of home-based interventions on the cognitive performance of patients with dementia.

Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted on the basis of the PRISMA statement. This protocol was registered in advance at PROSPERO (CRD42021277269). Six English electronic databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, SCOPUS, and OTseeker, were searched and updated to January 31, 2024. Two researchers independently completed the literature retrieval and data extraction. RevMan 5.3 software was used to analyze the data. The standardized mean difference and the 95% confidence interval were used for statistical analysis. Subgroup analyses were performed by assessment tools, intervention duration and intervention methods.

Results: Twenty randomized controlled trials with 3543 participants were included in the qualitative synthesis, and 17 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with the control intervention, the home-based intervention significantly improved cognitive performance (SMD = 0.45; 95% CI = [0.17, 0.74]; p = 0.002).

Conclusions: Moderate to high evidence shows that home-based interventions significantly improve the cognitive performance of patients with dementia, especially their comprehensive cognitive function.