Effects of Humanitude Care on People with Dementia and Caregivers: A Scoping Review

Aims and Objectives

This study aimed to comprehensively review the research literature to provide an overview of the effects of Humanitude on people with dementia and their caregivers.

Background

Humanitude is a relationship-centred and compassionate care approach that focuses on improving the communication between people with dementia and their caregivers. There is a lack of updated and comprehensive synthesis on the evidence of the effects of Humanitude in dementia care.

Design and Methods

This paper adopted the scoping review framework by Arksey and O'Malley. We searched through the following databases: Pubmed, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, ProQuest, Scopus and Web of Science from its inception to 3 September 2021. Three investigators independently screened the titles and abstracts and assessed the full-text articles for eligibility. The PRISMA-ScR checklist was included in this scoping review.

Results

We retrieved 1317 articles from databases and grey sources. Eleven studies were included after the screening. The synthesised results suggest that Humanitude can reduce agitation and psychological symptoms and improve the general well-being of people with dementia. Humanitude also has positive effects in improving care communication, empathy, job satisfaction and reducing burnout among caregivers.

Conclusion

Humanitude shows the potential for positive effects on people with dementia and their caregivers. However, most studies did not include a comparator group and could not provide rigorous findings as compared to randomised controlled trials. There is a need for randomised controlled studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of Humanitude on people with dementia and their caregivers.

Relevance for Clinical Practice

This paper reviewed the literature on all types of publications that examine the use of Humanitude in people with dementia and their caregivers. Thus, it provided an up-to-date overview of the effects of Humanitude to inform clinical practice.