Trial reportPloS one2021
The Online Life Story Book: A randomized controlled trial on the effects of a digital reminiscence intervention for people with (very) mild dementia and their informal caregivers.
Trial report in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Efficacy of digital cognitive stimulation therapy for people with dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC geriatrics · 2026Pooled it
- Digital reminiscence therapy in dementia care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC neurology · 2026Pooled it
- Digital technology-based dyadic interventions in patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia and their caregivers: a scoping review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of a Mobile Storytelling App (Huiyou) on Social Participation Among People With Mild Cognitive Impairment: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR human factors · 2025Trial
- Home-Based Digital Healthcare Interventions for Dementia: A Systematic Review of Patient and Family Caregiver Outcomes.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Digital narratives in person-centered care: a scoping review.Innovation in aging · 2026Review
- The CarerQol Instrument: A Systematic Review, Validity Analysis, and Generalization Reliability Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Digital Storytelling for People With Cognitive Impairment Using Available Mobile Apps: Systematic Search in App Stores and Content Analysis.JMIR aging · 2024Article
- Impact of digital assistive technologies on the quality of life for people with dementia: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Digital Storytelling Intervention for Enhancing the Social Participation of People With Mild Cognitive Impairment: Co-Design and Usability Study.JMIR aging · 2024Article
- Remembering the Past with Today's Technology: A Scoping Review of Reminiscence-Based Digital Storytelling with Older Adults.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Digital Storytelling as an Intervention for Older Adults: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Digital storytelling intervention to enhance social connections and participation for people with mild cognitive impairment: a research protocol.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Design requirements for a digital storytelling application for people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This paper describes a randomized controlled trial on the Online Life Story Book (OLSB), a digital reminiscence intervention for people with (very) mild dementia living at home. The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of the OLSB on (i) neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in persons with dementia and (ii) the distress and quality of life (QOL) of primary informal caregivers. A randomized controlled trial with individual randomization to one of two conditions was conducted: 1) intervention "Online Life Story Book"; 2) wait list control condition. In the intervention OLSB, a trained volunteer guided the participants through the process of creating an OLSB in approximately 5 meetings within a period of 8-10 weeks. Participants in the control condition received care as usual while they waited for 6 months before starting. Outcomes on NPS and distress and QOL of the informal caregiver were assessed at baseline (baseline, T0), 3 months (T1) and 6 months (T2) post baseline. Of the 42 persons with dementia, 23 were female and 19 were male. They had a mean age of 80 years, ranging from 49 to 95. The total drop-out rate was 14.3 percent. Small but insignificant effects on NPS, caregiver distress and QOL of caregivers were found with the exception of self-rated caregiver distress that reduced significantly during the intervention. One reason to explain the results might be that the included participants were in relatively good health. Practical challenges during the intervention could have affected the results as well. It might also be that the intervention caused effects on other outcomes than NPS and caregiver distress. In future research, it is important to study the effects in persons with more complaints and higher distress and to be careful in the selection of outcome variables in relation to the reminiscence functions served by the intervention.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.