Effect of the BACE intervention on agitation of people with dementia

Purpose: This study tests the effectiveness of the theoretically driven BACE (i.e., Balancing Arousal Controls Excesses) intervention in decreasing agitation in residents of long-term care with moderate or severe dementia. Design and Methods: A pretest-posttest double-blinded experimental design with random assignment was used with a sample of 78 participants. The BACE intervention controls the daily activity schedule so that there is a balance between a person's high-arousal and low-arousal states. The outcome measure was observed agitation. Results: When time spent in arousal imbalance at pretest was controlled for, a repeated measures analysis of covariance revealed a statistically significant Group X Time interaction, F(1, 69) = 4.26, p = .043, with a partial eta(2) = .06. The average change in agitation for the treatment group was a decrease of 8.43 points (SD = 12.01) from pretest to posttest, an effect size of .7. Implications: The results of this study support the theory that balancing arousal states by using an individualized approach is effective in decreasing agitation levels of people with dementia.