The effectiveness of massage and touch on behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia: A quantitative systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundMany original studies have explored the effectiveness of massage and touch on behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. However, the study design, interventions, measurements and outcomes varied among studies. AimTo systematically evaluate the effectiveness of massage and touch on the behavioural and psychological symptoms of older people with dementia. DesignA quantitative systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sourcesCochrane Library, The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Library, PubMed, CINAHL, ProQuest Health & Medical Complete, SinoMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang were searched from the date the database established to January 2016. Review methodsRandomized, controlled trials or quasi-experimental studies, involving massage and touch intervention for older people with dementia were considered to be included. Risk of bias assessment was performed using the Cochrane Collaboration's tool and meta-analysis was performed using Revman 5.3. ResultsA total of 11 studies, involving 526 older people were included. The results of the meta-analysis showed the total score of behavioural and psychological problems with older people with dementia and subgroup scores of physical aggressive behaviour, physical non-aggressive behaviour, verbal aggressive behaviour and verbal non-aggressive behaviour decreased significantly after receiving massage or touch, while the subgroups scores of anxiety, sadness and anger did not decreased significantly. ConclusionsDue to relatively small sample size and low quality of the included studies in this review, it is difficult to draw a conclusion on the effect of massage and touch on behavioural and psychological syndrome of dementia or implications for practice.