The Efficacy of Cognitive Rehabilitation on Mental state and Memory function of the Elderly with Mild Alzheimer’s

Cognitive deficits and Memory disfunctions cause low self-esteem and feeling of incapability in individual and social life in the elderly. Unfortunately, caring of the aged people in Iran is mostly based on physical care. The main aim of the present research was to study the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation on mental state and memory functions as a non-pharmacological intervention to decrease cognitive impairments in the erderly with mild Alzheimer’s. The research method of this study was experimental with pretest-posttest designs. Statistical population was all the elderly with mild Alzheimer’s disease who were living in residential care homes in Shemiranat area in Tehran province. The sample included 40 people who met the inclusion criteria of this study, and were selected through available sampling. The participants were assigned in the experimental group (20 patients) and control group (20 patients) by random assignment technique who were matched by education. Data were collected by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Wechsler Memory Scale Questionnaire (WMS-Q). The data were analyzed through Analysis of Covariance. The results showed that scores on both tests, (MMSE) and (WMS-Q) were significantly different, with higher indices in the intervention group. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that cognitive rehabilitation technique can be useful for repairing cognitive impairments in the elderly with Alzheime’s disease and it is anticipated that quality of their individual and social lives will be improved.