Alvares‐Pereira 2021.

Study characteristics
Methods	RCT
Participants	N = 105 (91F/14M) Met the DSM‐5 criteria for neurocognitive disorder (dementia) (no information regarding medication) Age 83.6 (SD 7.6; range 59‐98) Eight centres participated (2 day‐centres, 2 nursing homes, 2 psychogeriatric centres, 1 hospital, 1 rehabilitation centre)
Interventions	Cognitive stimulation group sessions (N = 55) Treatment‐as‐usual (N = 50)
Outcomes	Cognition: ADAS‐Cog; Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) Cognitive Reserve Questionnaire Quality of life: QoL‐AD (self‐report & proxy scores combined in paper ‐ separate scores provided by authors) Communication: Holden Communication Scale Mood: Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD); RAID (Rating of Anxiety in Dementia) Behaviour: Behaviour Rating Scale (CAPE)
Notes	45 minutes, twice a week, for 7 weeks
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Randomisation process performed centrally using a web‐based system
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Randomisation carried out by external administrator; participants informed of group allocation by an unblinded researcher
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Outcome assessors blinded
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No attrition in intervention group ‐ reasons given for larger dropout in control group
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All outcomes cited in Methods section were reported.
Other bias ‐ training and supervision	Low risk	Facilitators trained by researchers who had trained at International CST centre
Other bias ‐ treatment manual	Low risk	Used Portugese adaptation of CST Manual (Spector 2006)