The Application of 3+1 Holistic Rehabilitation Nursing in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the 3+1 holistic rehabilitation nursing in terms of self-care ability, cognition, language, and emotional regulation of AD patients. This study also summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of current studies to guide future studies. Methods: Literatures on 3+1 holistic rehabilitation nursing as an intervention for patients with Alzheimer’s disease were searched from three Chinese databases in January 2021: CNKI, VIP, and Wang Fang Database. Two reviewers independently screened the identified studies by title and abstract. Thereafter, the full text of all 28 studies were reviewed. Finally, 24 studies were included after excluding duplicates, non-3+1 holistic rehabilitation mursing studies, non-experimental studies, studies with inconsistent sample size, wrong data analysis, and unclear outcomes, etc. Results: Upon reviewing the 24 literatures, all the included studies were clinical studies that made comparisons between 3+1 holistic rehabilitation mursing groups and traditional nursing groups. The age of the participants were between 60 and 80 years, and the total number of participates were 2,790. However, there were some studies that did not report the average age (5/24), average duration (14/24), and the ratio of male to female patients (3/24). Only a few studies reported the intervention time (7/24) and classified the disease by severity (4/24). The outcomes included activities of daily living (ADL), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Chinese Rehabilitation Research Center Aphasia Examination (CRRCAE). A total of 19 studies showed that 3+1 holistic rehabilitation nursing is effective in improving patients’ self-care ability; 14 studies showed that this rehabilitation nursing has a significant curative effect for the cognitive function of patients; 7 studies showed that this nursing model can promote the recovery of language function in AD patients; 5 studies showed the model can significantly reduce the incidence of adverse events and complications upon receiving treatment; 2 studies showed that the nursing model is helpful for depression and emotional indifference. Conclusion: Compared with the traditional nursing mode, 3+1 holistic rehabilitation nursing is more effective in improving self-care ability, cognitive function, language function, emotional state, and so on. In addition, this nursing model can significantly reduce the incidence of adverse events, falls, pressure sores, and other complications during hospitalization. However, the inclusion criteria and duration of intervention for the included studies need to be further standardized, and more experimental studies on the efficacy of 3+1 holistic rehabilitation nursing on severe AD patients as well as the complications caused by AD are required. The cost of 3+1 holistic rehabilitation nursing, which is specialized and personalized, is high. Therefore, the value of this nursing model still requires much research.