title: Special care units and traditional care in dementia: relationship with behavior, cognition, functional status and quality of life - a review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Special care facilities for patients with dementia gain increasing attention. However, an overview of studies examining the differences between care facilities with respect to their effects on behavior, cognition, functional status and quality of life is lacking.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our literature search resulted in 32 studies published until October 2012. Overall, patients with dementia who lived at special care units (SCUs) showed a significantly more challenging behavior, more agitation/aggression, more depression and anxiety, more cases of global cognitive impairment and a better psychosocial functioning. There was a tendency towards a better functional status in specialized care facilities, and a better quality of life was found in favor of the SCU group compared to the traditional nursing home (n-SCU) group. Longitudinal studies showed an increased number of neuropsychiatric cases, more patients displaying deteriorating behavior and resistance to care as well as less decline in activities of daily living (ADL) in the SCU group compared to the n-SCU group. Patients in small-scale, homelike SCUs showed more agitation and less ADL decline compared to SCU patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review shows that the patient characteristics in SCU and n-SCU settings and, to a minor extent, in SCU and small-scale, homelike SCU settings are different. Over time, there are differences between n-SCU, SCU and small-scale, homelike SCU facilities for some variables.
authors.affiliation: Lentis/Dignis, Mental Health Care Institute, Zuidlaren, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jeroen S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kok
authors.affiliation: Lentis/Dignis, Mental Health Care Institute, Zuidlaren, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ina J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Erik J A
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Scherder
keywords: Behavior; Cognition; Dementia; Functional status; Nursing home; Quality of life; Special care units