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

University of Southern California

Status: Completed

Conditions: Behavior Disorders; Depression; Dementia

Treatments: Other: Daylight Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03483896

UP-16-00487

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full 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.

Enrollment: 83 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Residents were recruited according to the trial inclusion criteria: 1) Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) diagnosis, 2) no physical co-morbidities that precluded participation in the daily group intervention, and 3) a Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) score of 10 or higher

Exclusion criteria

• physical co-morbidities that precluded participation in the daily group intervention

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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83 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

At the 4 facilities in the control arm, participants received the usual care. During the period from 8:00 - 10:00 AM each day, the control group was taken to a similar sized area indoors (without daylight) for socialization under typical electrical lighting conditions.

Daylight Intervention

Active Comparator group

Description:

At the 4 facilities in the active light intervention arm, 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.

Treatment:

Other: Daylight Intervention