Occupational Therapy Prevents Cognitive Impairment on Long-Term Care Residents

ABSTRACT

Aims: Cognitive impairment causes functional impairment and declining quality of life in the elderly. Occupational therapy (OT) could help to prevent or slow cognitive decline. However, little is known of how OT parameters could influence cognitive impairment. Methods: We conducted an observational study over the course of 1 year, on 94 long-term care residents, analyzing cognitive impairment. The cohort was split into three groups, each being provided with different amounts of OT (non-OT, 2 h OT a week, and 10 h OT a week). The OT program consisted of cognitive and memory training, reality orientation, psychomotor activities, and crafts. Results: Our results show that OT is effective in slowing cognitive decline and its effectiveness seems to be proportional to the hours of OT received. The 10 h OT group showed significantly reduced Mini-Mental State Examination score compared with the non-OT group (p < 0.01). OT also appears to be useful in people with previous cognitive impairment. Conclusions: The study adds to the growing literature of OT interventions for older adults and our findings support the concept that OT could be effective in slowing cognitive impairment in the elderly.

KEYWORDS:

• Aged
• aging
• cognition
• cognition disorders
• OT

Acknowledgments

We thank the occupational therapists who performed the OT program and the long care center managers. We also express our deep appreciation to all of the participants. The authors wish to acknowledge Nicola Jeffery and Ben Lee for their critical reading of the manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.