Effectiveness of a multifaceted cognitive training programme for people with mild cognitive impairment : a one-group pre- and posttest design

Objectives: The effectiveness of a cognitive training programme in enhancing the functional abilities of elderly persons with mild cognitive impairments was tested in an integrated home and institutional training programme focused on performing daily tasks. Methods: Twenty elderly participants were taught cognitive stimulation and memory encoding strategies for 10 weeks by an occupational therapist, or by nonprofessionals and community caregivers. The programme consisted of attention and memory stimulation, association-based and imagery-based strategies. Functional assessment (Chinese version of the disability assessment for dementia instrument and the instrumental activities of daily living scale) and neuropsychological tests (digit span forward test, word list memory subtest of the neuropsychological test battery developed by the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease, Cognistat) were administered before and after the programme. Results: After the 10-week programme the participants showed significant improvements in average attention and memory. The participants showed improved memory (word list memory: p ≤ .001) and other cognitive function as measured by the naming (p ≤ .001), construction (p ≤ .001), memory (p ≤ .001) and similarities (p ≤ .001) subtests of the Cognistat. Conclusion: These results provide initial evidence supporting the use of daily tasks as the context in teaching cognitive stimulation and memory encoding strategies to mildly impaired elderly people.