About 70,000 people in Norway are afflicted by dementia. Dementia is a progressive disease and the incidence increases with the age. More than the half of people with dementia are living at home and about 80 percent of all residents in nursing homes have a dementia disorder.

We have critically appraised Cochrane reviews and graded the available evidence about the efficacy of physical activity and other care interventions for people with dementia on the following outcomes: cognition, agitation, depression, anxiety, quality of life, activity of daily living and 24-hours care. The Norwegian Directorate of Health commissioned this work. The results will be used in the development of a new evidence-based guideline.

We included seven Cochrane reviews: one about physical activity and six about other care interventions. The documentation shows that:

• Physical activity probably has little or no effect on depression, but might contribute to better cognitive function and daily activity level.
• Light therapy in the morning might contribute to slightly better daily activity level, but might have little or no effect on cognitive function, depression and challenging behavior.
• Conclusions could not be drawn about the effect of respite care, special care unit and massage and touch for people with dementia. There is lack of summarized research on interventions to prevent wandering.

There is a lack of research on several key endpoints. We did not find Cochrane reviews for example about specific types of caregiver and residential care staff education and environmental interventions.