Spector 2001.

Study characteristics
Methods	RCT
Participants	N = 35 Diagnosis of dementia according to DSM‐IV criteria MMSE 13.1 (SD 4.4) Age 85.7 (SD 6.7) Living at home: 12; living in residential home: 23
Interventions	Cognitive stimulation (N = 21) Treatment‐as‐usual (N = 14)
Outcomes	Cognition: MMSE; ADAS‐Cog Communication: Holden Communication Scale Mood: Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia; RAID Behaviour: Behaviour Rating Scale (CAPE). Family caregivers: Relatives Stress Scale; GHQ
Notes	45 minutes, 2 times a week, for 7 weeks
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Randomly allocated to either group by drawing names from a sealed container
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Randomly allocated to either group by drawing names from a sealed container ‐ would have been preferable for randomisation to have been carried out independently
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	High risk	At least some of the assessments were carried out by staff aware of group allocation.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Attrition reported (with reasons): 4 in CS group, 4 in control group i.e. 23%
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Data from all measures reported
Other bias ‐ training and supervision	Unclear risk	Groups led by a member of the research team, with a member of staff as co‐facilitator ‐ training and supervision unclear
Other bias ‐ treatment manual	Low risk	Manual (Spector 2006) developed through this study