A Systematic Review of Nonpharmacological Interventions for Moderate to Severe Dementia: A Study Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The study is designed as a systematic review on nonpharmacological interventions for patients with moderate to severe dementia. This review will be conducted in accordance with the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. The following databases will be searched: Cochrane CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, KoreaMED, KMbase, and KISS. The primary outcome will include the effect of the interventions on activities of daily living and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. The literature search will be conducted based on search strategies designed for each database. The reviewers will independently assess the identified studies and extract the data. The risk of bias will be assessed and a meta-analysis will be conducted in accordance with the methodology for meta-analysis described in the Cochrane handbook. This systematic review will provide clinicians and policy makers with reliable evidence for developing and implementing nonpharmacological interventions for moderate to severe patients with dementia.