Evaluating the effects of diffused lavender in an adult day care center for patients with dementia in an effort to decrease behavioral issues: a pilot study

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of diffused lavender on the frequency of behavioral issues [BIs], defined as a composite of restlessness/wandering [RW], agitation [AGT], anger [ANG], and anxiety [ANX] in an adult day care center. Secondary objectives evaluate systematic differences on the frequency of BIs between age cohorts, gender, and individual behaviors. Design: Pre-post quasi-experimental study. Setting: Private nonprofit adult day care center for patients with dementia. Participants: Elderly patients older than 65 years of age with a clinical diagnosis of dementia, who require daytime monitoring. Intervention: Lavender aromatherapy twice a day for 20 min during a two-month period during active clinic days. Measurements: Behavioral issues were recorded using the behavior/intervention monthly flow record during the pre- and post-intervention periods. Results: There was no significant difference on frequency of BIs between pre-intervention and post-intervention periods (p = .06). There was a significant difference between pre-intervention and post-intervention total number of AGT occurrences (129 vs. 25; p value < .01). There was no significant difference between age cohorts for computed difference of RW, ANG, and ANX issues. There was a significant difference between age cohorts for computed difference of AGT (p value = .04) as the 70-85 age cohort showed less agitation compared to the 85-100 age cohort. Conclusion: The use of diffused lavender twice daily has shown to reduce the frequency of agitation in elderly patients with dementia, especially in the 70-85 age cohort. Though diffused lavender did not show statistical differences in the frequency of other behaviors (restlessness/wander, anger, anxiety), the study population may have been too small to find a difference.