A randomized trial of a combined physical activity and environmental intervention in nursing home residents: do sleep and agitation improve?

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to test whether an intervention combining increased daytime physical activity with improvement in the nighttime environment improves sleep and decreases agitation in nursing home residents.

DESIGN: A randomized trial.

SETTING: One community nursing home in the Los Angeles, California area.

PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-nine incontinent residents (mean age 88.3 years, 90% female).

INTERVENTION: Subjects were randomized to receive either (1) an intervention combining increased daytime physical activity (14 weeks in duration) plus a nighttime program (5 nights in duration) to decrease noise and sleep-disruptive nursing care practices (intervention group), or (2) the nighttime program alone (control group).

MEASUREMENTS: Daytime physical activity monitors and structured physical function assessments; nighttime wrist activity monitors to estimate nighttime sleep; and timed daytime behavioral observations of sleep versus wakefulness, either in or out of bed, and agitation.

RESULTS: Physical function measures did not change significantly (MANOVA for repeated measures, group by time effect). Wrist actigraphy estimation of nighttime percent sleep (time asleep over time monitored in bed at night) increased in intervention subjects from 51.7% at baseline to 62.5% at follow-up compared with 67.0% at baseline to 66.3% at follow-up in controls (MANOVA, group by time, F = 4.42, P = .045, df = 27). At follow-up, intervention subjects averaged a 32% decrease in the percent of daytime observations in bed compared with baseline, with essentially no change in controls (MANOVA, group by time, F = 5.31, P = .029, df = 27). Seven of 15 intervention subjects had a decrease in observed agitation at follow-up, compared with baseline, versus only 1 of 14 controls with a decrease in observed agitation.

CONCLUSIONS: This study provides preliminary evidence that an intervention combining increased physical activity with improvement in the nighttime nursing home environment improves sleep and decreases agitation in nursing home residents.