Integrative Literature Review of Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Elderly Patients with Sleep Disorders

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide evidence for developing non-pharmacological intervention programsfor elderly patients with sleep disorders by integrative literature review and analysis. The integrative literature review was performed for articles publishedfrom January 2009 to December 2019. The key words, insomnia,sleep disorder,elderly, and intervention were used to search peer-reviewed evidence on five electronic databases. We reviewed 14 appropriate papers among them for the final analysis. Analysis of the articles of non-pharmacological interventions surveyed in the elderly with sleep disorders in Korea was conducted in five steps of the integrated literature review presented by Whittemore & Knafl. The 14 articles revealed six kinds of interventions for non-pharmacological intervention in elderly patients with sleep disorders: aromatherapy, laughter therapy, sleep program, auriculotherapy, footbath, and relaxation program. As a result of the integrative literature review, it was found that non-pharmacological interventions improved sleep quantitatively and qualitatively and was also effective in physiological and psychological ways.First, it was confirmed that the quality and quality of sleep improved, and satisfaction with sleep increased. In particular, sleep quality was greatly improved with foot bath therapy and complex intervention. Second, a decrease in systolic blood pressure, changes in EEG and increase in B lymphocytes among the immune responses were confirmed as physiological effects. Third, among the psychological effects, depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction were improved.

This study provides evidence for intervention programs for sleep improvement for elderly patients with sleep disorders. This study suggests to measure the effects of objective sleep assessment, complex intervention, and immunity-related variables in a non-pharmacological intervention study for the elderly with sleep disorders in the future.