Mapelli 2013.

Study characteristics
Methods	RCT
Participants	N = 30 (gender not specified) Alzheimer’s disease (N = 16); vascular dementia (N = 13); mixed dementia (N = 1) according to DSM‐IV‐TR criteria Mean MMSE 19.5 (SD 3.4) Age 83.7 (SD 4.6) Nursing home
Interventions	Cognitive stimulation groups (N = 10) Occupational therapy 'Placebo' groups (N = 10) Treatment‐as‐usual control (N = 10)
Outcomes	Cognition: MMSE; Esame Neuropsicologico Breve 2 (ENB2) (comprises 14 subtests including digit span, verbal fluency and Trail Making Test); Clinical Dementia Rating Mood: Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS‐30) ADL: ADL scale Behaviour problems: Behavioral Pathology in Alzheimer’s Disease Rating Scale (Behave‐AD scale)
Notes	60 minutes, five times a week for 8 weeks. Relevant comparison for this review was cognitive stimulation versus treatment‐as‐usual.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Allocation appears to be simple randomisation using 'a simple computerized randomization technique', but no further details given
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No mention of who carried out randomisation
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Blinded rater
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Full information provided ‐ no participants lost to follow‐up, no participants excluded from analyses
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	No information was reported on some outcome measures despite being included in the methods (e.g. ADL, GDS‐30).
Other bias ‐ training and supervision	Unclear risk	No mention of training
Other bias ‐ treatment manual	Unclear risk	Although structure was outlined, exact content of exercises was unclear ‐ did not appear to be a treatment manual as such