Introduction: Occupational therapists play a very important role in the involvement of people with dementia in leisure activities. The latter contributes to the inhibition of cognitive decline and a better quality of life. In addition to involvement, the choice of meaningful leisure activities and their frequency are also important. It is important that individuals choose the activity themselves, as their own choice contributes to preserving their identity. Leisure activities therefore significantly improve the quality of life, as they reduce the consequences of this disease, while people with dementia remain physically more active and engage in meaningful activities. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to determine which leisure activities are the most successful for maintaining cognitive functions and what is the importance of the user’s interest in the choice of leisure activities. Methods: The search included literature from the year 2000 onwards, and was conducted in the ScienceDirect, PubMed, Cinahl, Web of Science and Academia.edu databases. The following keywords were used: dementia OR Alzheimer’s disease OR, people with dementia OR cognitive functions AND leisure activities OR involvement in leisure activities AND choice, effects, occupational therapy OR occupational therapist. We used words in Slovenian and English. Seven sources that met the inclusion criteria were used in the content analysis. We also assessed the relevance and strength of the evidence. Results: Through analysis and synthesis, we formed four themes, namely involvement in leisure activities, consideration of the user's interest, frequency of leisure activities and effective leisure activities. Discussion and conclusion: Leisure activities offer many benefits to people with dementia. They prevent cognitive decline, which is the main treatment goal, they reduce stress, increase self-confidence, and improve memory, psychophysical health, general well-being and the quality of life. Mental, social and physical leisure activities are among the most effective. Mental activities are in the first place, as they have proven to be the most effective in inhibiting cognitive decline and maintaining cognitive functions, and in last place are physical activities, which with their properties inhibit cognitive decline, but there is still too little research done to confirm if physical activities have the necessary effect for people with dementia. When choosing leisure activities or discovering the user’s interests, the cooperation of the occupational therapist and the user is very important. In the future, more research is needed in the field of leisure activities, as most of the literature is related to occupational therapy treatment, which does not include this field.
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