Assignment on Dementia Refers to a Neurological Disorder

Running head: ESSAY
Summative Assessment 2
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ESSAY
Introduction- Dementia refers to a neurological disorder that is progressive and results in
a decline in cognitive function that eventually creates an impact on thinking, memory,
comprehension, orientation, judgment, learning capacity, behaviour, and capability to conduct
routine work (Chan et al. 2019). According to global estimates not less than 47 million
individuals suffer from dementia, with as much as 60% of them residing in middle and low
income countries (Shrivastava, Shrivastava and Ramasamy 2016). This essay discusses a search
for evidence for the research question “Is music therapy effective in enhancing quality of life of
dementia patients?” It describes a search strategy that helped in identification of an article
relevant to the research question, followed by its critical appraisal.
Background- Information literacy is an umbrella term that refers to the set of
incorporated capabilities which encompass the reflective investigation of particular
information, the sound awareness and understanding of production of such information, and
utilisation of the same in development of new knowledge and ethical engagement in different
learning communities (Rader 2019). Information literacy is significant in the contemporary
world since it encourages thinking skills and problem solving, by exploring questions and
discovering the answers, developing opinions, assessing sources and making definite decisions.
In other words, it fosters effective contributors, successful learners, and confident individuals.
The prominence of information literacy for lifelong learning can be associated to the fact that it
improves quality of education in educational settings and learning environment (Nord 2019).
According to Brownson et al. (2017) evidence-based public health practice refers to the
creation, application, and assessment of effective policies and programs related to public health,
through implementation of particular principles that focus on scientific questioning, together
with the systematic utilisation of information and data system, and behavioural science theories.

2ESSAY
An evidence-based outlook towards public health has countless direct and indirect advantages
like increasing the access to high quality information on practices that are best, augmenting the
likelihood of successful policies and health prevention programs, increasing productivity of
workforce, and focusing on efficient use of public health resources (Brownson et al. 2018).
Essential components of evidence-based public health comprise of making decisions based on
scientific evidences that are accessible, conduction of sound evaluation programs, and
engagement of the community in different aspects of decision making, and disseminating the
learned information.
Literature review refers to a survey of scholarly scientific evidences like journals,
articles, and recent books that are associated to a particular research question or topic. Literature
review is typically written as a significant portion of a dissertation research paper thesis, with the
aim of establishing an alignment of the work, in relation to the previously existing knowledge on
the phenomenon that is being investigated (Hart 2018). Literature review comprises of
contemporary knowledge, together with substantial findings, in addition to methodological and
theoretical contributions that have been made on the specific phenomenon. These are typically
considered secondary sources, and do not contain any original experimental or novel work, and
act as the foundation for research in all domains of academics. The different types of literature
reviews that are commonly conducted are exploratory, instrumental, systematic, and evaluative
(Machi and McEvoy 2016).
The significance of the topic selected for the literature review can be accredited to the
fact that there is no definite cure available for the clinical syndrome of dementia that is
degenerative and progressive, and its prevalence dramatically increases with age (Prince et al.
2016). In addition, the psychological and behavioural symptoms of dementia significantly

3ESSAY
contribute to a reduced quality of life and sense of wellbeing amongst all patients, besides
preventing them from performing their activities of daily living owing to cognitive impairment
(Missotten, Dupuis and Adam 2016). This calls for the need of exploring whether the non-
pharmacological intervention of music therapy creates any impact on the wellbeing and quality
of life of dementia patients, thereby decreasing the behavioural problems that they manifest.
Search strategy- With the aim of conducting this literature review the free search engine
of PubMed was selected, since it predominantly accesses the MEDLINE database of abstracts
and references on biomedical and life sciences topic. From the year 1971 till 1997, MEDLINE
database could be only accessed online, typically through University libraries and other
institutional facilities (Fiorini, Lipman and Lu 2017). Another reason for selecting the search
engine was that it allows conducting simple searches by entering chief aspects of the research
phenomenon in the search window, following which the search formulation is translated and
field names, synonyms, and MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) terms are automatically added,
thus generating significant results. The research question was developed based on the PICO
framework that refers to a mnemonic, predominantly used in evidence-based practice for the
development of a healthcare or clinical question (Speckman and Friedly 2019).
P (population) Dementia patients
I (intervention) Music therapy
C (comparison) Treatment-as-usual
O (outcome) Quality of life
Table 1- PICO framework