Dementia Enlightened?! A Systematic Literature Review of the Influence of Indoor Environmental Light on the Health of Older Persons with Dementia in Long-Term Care Facilities

Jun 3, 2021Clinical interventions in aging

How Indoor Light Affects the Health of Older People with Dementia in Care Homes

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Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗OA ↗

Abstract

A review of 37 articles indicates that indoor light exposure could improve quality of life for older adults with dementia.

Exposure to cool light of moderate intensity may reduce in individuals with dementia.
There are promising effects of indoor light on reducing depressive symptoms.
Indoor light could facilitate better spatial orientation for older adults with dementia.
No conclusive evidence was found linking indoor light to decreased challenging behaviors or improved .
Variability in research methods and participant characteristics may affect the reliability of findings.

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Light therapy for older persons with dementia is often administered with light boxes, even though indoor ambient light may more comfortably support the diverse lighting needs of this population. Our objective is to investigate the influence of indoor daylight and lighting on the health of older adults with dementia living in long-term care facilities. A systematic literature search was performed within PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Scopus databases. The included articles (n=37) were published from 1991 to 2020. These articles researched the influence of existing and changed indoor light conditions on health and resulted in seven categories of health outcomes. Although no conclusive evidence was found to support the ability of indoor light to decrease challenging behaviors or improve , findings of two studies indicate that exposure to (very) cool light of moderate intensity diminished . Promising effects of indoor light were to reduce depressive symptoms and facilitate spatial orientation. Furthermore, there were indications that indoor light improved one's quality of life. Despite interventions with dynamic lighting having yielded little evidence of its efficacy, its potential has been insufficiently researched among this study population. This review provides a clear and comprehensive description of the impact of diverse indoor light conditions on the health of older adults with dementia living in long-term care facilities. Variation was seen in terms of research methods, (the description of) light conditions, and participants' characteristics (types and severity of dementia), thus confounding the reliability of the findings. The authors recommend further research to corroborate the beneficial effects of indoor light on depression and to clarify its role in supporting everyday activities of this population. An implication for practice in long-term care facilities is raising the awareness of the increased lighting needs of aged residents.

Key numbers

22 of 37

Studies on Behavior

Studies investigating the influence of light on behavior outcomes.

8 of 37

Studies on Mood

Studies examining the relationship between light conditions and mood outcomes.

Light Interventions

Number of studies showing significant decrease in with light interventions.

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Dementia Enlightened?! A Systematic Literature Review of the Influence of Indoor Environmental Light on the Health of Older Persons with Dementia in Long-Term Care Facilities

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You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief