NCT03483896

Pilot Study to Examine Health Effects of Daylight Exposure on Dementia Patients

Pilot Study to Examine the Effects of Indoor Daylight Exposure on Depression and Other Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in People Living With Dementia in Long Term Care Facilities

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 83 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Southern California · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study is designed to test the hypothesis that an intervention increasing exposure to daylight indoors will reduce depression and other neuropsychiatric symptoms among people living with dementia in long term care facilities.

Detailed description

Exposure to sufficient daylight indoors is a novel and potentially effective nonpharmacological treatment option for reducing depression and other neuropsychiatric symptoms for people living with dementia in long term care facilities. However, there are currently no minimum requirements for daylight access in care facilities. In urban settings, it is common for residents to spend the majority of the day indoors, illuminated by electrical light sources that deliver light with significantly lower intensities and reduced spectrum compared with daylight. A 12-week pilot study was conducted in 8 dementia care facilities involving (n = 83) participants addressing the hypothesis that an intervention increasing indoor exposure to daylight will reduce depression and other neuropsychiatric symptoms. At 4 facilities, staff was enlisted to increase daylight exposure by taking participants to a perimeter room with daylight exposure for socialization in the morning (8:00 - 10:00 AM) each day. At the other 4 facilities, a control group were taken to a similar sized area without daylight for socialization under typical electrical lighting conditions. Outcome measures for depression and other neuropsychiatric symptoms were taken at the beginning and end of the 12-week study.

Conditions

• Dementia
• Depression
• Behavior Disorders

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Daylight Intervention	Staff increased the daylight exposure of participants by taking them to the perimeter zone of a daylit room from 8:00 to 10:00 AM for socialization over a period of 12 weeks. The perimeter zone was defined to be the region of the room within 3 meters from windows. The intervention was administered each day (7 days / week) over the duration of the study.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-01-30
• Primary completion: 2017-05-10
• Completion: 2017-06-05
• First posted: 2018-03-30
• Last updated: 2019-03-29
• Results posted: 2019-03-29

Locations

8 sites across 1 country: United States