The impact of past and present preferences on stimulus engagement in nursing home residents with dementia.
OBJECTIVE
We examined engagement with stimuli in 193 nursing home residents with dementia. We hypothesized that activities and stimuli based on a person's past and current preferences would result in more engagement than other activities/stimuli.


METHODS
The expanded version of the self-identity questionnaire [Cohen-Mansfield, J., Golander, H. & Arheim, G. (2000)] was used to determine participants' past/present interests (as reported by relatives) in the following areas: art, music, babies, pets, reading, television, and office work. We utilized the observational measurement of engagement (Cohen-Mansfield, J., Dakheel-Ali, M., & Marx, M.S. (2009).


RESULTS
Analysis revealed that residents with current interests in music, art, and pets were more engaged by stimuli that reflect these interests than residents without these interests.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings demonstrate the utility of determining a person's preferences for stimuli in order to predict responsiveness. Lack of prediction for some stimuli may reflect differences between past preferences and activities that are feasible in the present.
Cohen-Mansfield
Jiska
J
Research Institute on Aging, Charles E. Smith Life Communities, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. Cohen-mansfield@hebrew-home.org
Marx
Marcia S
MS
Thein
Khin
K
Dakheel-Ali
Maha
M
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003704:Dementia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008396:Maryland; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009735:Nursing Homes; D057240:Patient Preference; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires