Centre for Policy on Ageing



Conversation intervention with Alzheimer's patients — increasing the relevance of communication
Author(s)	Ruth M Tappen, Christine L Williams, Charlotte Barry
Journal title	Clinical Gerontologist, vol 24, nos 3/4, 2001
Pages	pp 63-76
Source	http://www.tandfonline.com
Keywords	Dementia ; Residents [care homes] ; Nursing homes ; Cognitive processes ; Communication skills ; United States of America.
Annotation	The effectiveness of conversation in improving verbal communication of nursing home residents with Alzheimer's disease (AD) was compared with use of exercise and a combination of both interventions. 55 participants were randomly assigned to the treatment group and raters were blinded. Treatment was given 3 times a week for 30 minutes, for 16 weeks. Although all groups evidenced decline in the total number of words used as a group, the conversation-only subjects' performance was significantly better in terms of the number of non-redundant units of information produced and conciseness. Individual subjects' change in performance was also examined. Active engagement in structured one-on-one conversation may improve relevance of communication in this population. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-021028213 A
Classmark	EA: KX: LHB: DA: UO: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.