The Relation between Bathing Habits, Cognitive Impairment, and Depressive State in Patients with Alzheimer Disease

Yasushi Iwasaki; Akira Deguchi; Eri Suzumura; Kazunori Maeda; Hiroya Shimasaki; Noriyuki Tanaka; Yasunori Mori; Chihiro Miwa; Hitoshi Hamaguchi; Yoichi Kawamura

Return

The Relation between Bathing Habits, Cognitive Impairment, and Depressive State in Patients with Alzheimer Disease

VernacularTitle:The Relation between Bathing Habits, Cognitive Impairment, and Depressive State in Patients with Alzheimer Disease
Author: Yasushi IWASAKI ¹ ; Akira DEGUCHI ¹ ; Eri SUZUMURA ¹ ; Kazunori MAEDA ¹ ; Hiroya SHIMASAKI ¹ ; Noriyuki TANAKA ² ; Yasunori MORI ³ ; Chihiro MIWA ⁴ ; Hitoshi HAMAGUCHI ¹ ; Yoichi KAWAMURA ¹
Author Information

1. Oyamada Memorial Spa Hospital
2. Syutaikai Hospital
3. Mie prefecture Health and Environment Reseach Institute
4. Nagoya University School of Health Sciences
Keywords: Alzheimer disease; cognitive impairment; depressive state; bathing times; executive dysfunction
From:The Journal of The Japanese Society of Balneology, Climatology and Physical Medicine 2012;75(3):186-194
CountryJapan
Language:Japanese
Abstract: Because bathing frequency decrease as Alzheimer disease (AD) worsens, we investigated the relation between cognitive disfunction and bathing frequency. We asked AD patients and their caregivers about the number of times the patient bathed per week before onset of dementia and the time of first clinical consultation. We investigated the relation between scores from a cognitive function test (Hasegawa’s Dementia Scale-Revised [HDS-R], the Mini Mental State Examination [MMSE] and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised [WAIS-R]), and a depression assessment (Zung Self-rating Depression Scale [SDS]) and number of baths taken per week. Before onset of dementia, the average number of baths taken by 89 AD patients (26 men, 63 women; range: 63-90 years, average: 79.8 years), was 6.6 times/week. At evaluation time, this number had decreased significantly to 5.3 times/week (p<0.001). A significant positive correlation was found between perfomance Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and total IQ of the WAIS-R and number of baths (p<0.001, p<0.01, respectively). No significant correlation coefficient was found between HDS-R, MMSE, verbal IQ of the WAIS-R and the SDS and number of baths. Reasons of the patients gave for less frequent bathing were that bathing was troublesome or was forgotten and that thermoregulation of bath water had become impossible. The results suggested that in AD patients, number of baths taken decreased with aggravation of cognitive dysfunction and that there were multiple participating factors including memory disturbance, depressive state, and, particularly, executive dysfunction.