Effects of Dementia Care Mapping on well‐being and quality of life of older people with intellectual disability: A quasi‐experimental study

BACKGROUND: The ageing of people with intellectual disability, accompanied with consequences like dementia, challenges intellectual disability‐care staff and creates a need for supporting methods, with Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) as a promising possibility. This study examined the effect of DCM on the quality of life of older people with intellectual disability. METHODS: We performed a quasi‐experimental study in 23 group homes for older people with intellectual disability in the Netherlands, comparing DCM (n = 113) with care‐as‐usual (CAU; n = 111). Using three measures, we assessed the staff‐reported quality of life of older people with intellectual disability. RESULTS: DCM achieved no significantly better or worse quality of life than CAU. Effect sizes varied from 0.01 to −0.22. Adjustments for covariates and restriction of analyses to people with dementia yielded similar results. CONCLUSION: The finding that DCM does not increase quality of life of older people with intellectual disability contradicts previous findings and deserves further study.