Effects of mental practices on quality of life in elderly men (60-80yrs)

The number of elderly population in the world and also in Iran has increased due to health improvements and therefore، the quality of life has been focused in this group of population. Physical disabilities and particularly balance disturbances are among the consequences of the ageing process and hence، would affect the quality of life in elderly population. Mental practice is in fact the cognitive review of a physical skill without performing obvious bodily movements. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mental practice of a movement skill on improvement of the quality of life in elderly men (60-80 yrs). This was a Single blind Randomized controlled trial (RCT) study. The study was approved by the research ethics committee of the Tehran university of medical science (Irct ID: IRCT201107041722N3). The elderly population was 44 elderly men (60-80 yrs.) who were living in Kahrizak Nursing Home. They were randomly assigned in two groups and entered the study based on inclusion criteria. After baseline assessment، the quality of life of all of participants were assessed by SF36 test and also at 3 various stages (i. e. respectively، before the beginning of، baseline assessment; two weeks after intervention، short term follow up; and 3 months after intervention، long term follow up). Elderly population in the intervention group did mental practice of one movement skill for 4 weeks and during this periods، the control group did no mental practice. The results of our study showed the scores of SF36 in physical component، after the intervention of mental practice، have had a significant difference between the control and intervention groups. Although test scores in mental component and the whole test score showed no significant difference between the case and control groups at 3 stages of assessments. The results of this study showed the significant effects of mental practices on physical component of SF36 in elderly population. However، these results also showed that this type of mental practice had no significant effects on mental component and total score of SF36.