The Effectiveness of Cognitive Rehabilitation on Improving the Cognitive Abilities of the Elderly

The stagnation of mental activity in aging is associated with a decline in the function of all body systems, including cardiovascular, respiratory, genital, glandular, immune, and other organs. Cognitive disorders are also one of the most common problems in aging, which in turn exposes them at risk. Aging is associated with significant changes in memory, intelligence, perception, metacognition, recall, problem-solving, and other cognitive abilities. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation in improving the cognitive abilities of the elderly. 

The present study was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population included elderly people living in nursing homes in Kermanshah City, Iran, from which 24 people were selected by convenience sampling method and according to the inclusion criteria and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent 20 sessions of 35 minutes twice a week with the Captain Log cognitive rehabilitation program, during which time the control group did not receive any intervention. After the intervention, post-test was performed for both groups. Research tools included a cognitive rescue skills questionnaire and Captain Log rehabilitation software. Descriptive statistics and univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance were used to analyze the data using SPSS software, version 24.

The results of data analysis showed that F statistic for dependent components, including memory (F=193.57, P<0.001), selective attention (F=375.43, P<0.001), decision-making (F=39.20, P<0.001), planning (F=120.003, P<0.001), sustained attention (F=312.07, P<0.001), flexibility (F=91.44, P<0.001), and social cognition (F=4.48, P<0.05) are significant at the level of 0.05 and 0.01. Therefore, it can be concluded that the cognitive rehabilitation program has improved the cognitive abilities of the elderly.

Considering that cognitive rehabilitation has a significant effect on the neural activities of brain areas related to cognitive abilities and improves their function, it can be used as a suitable method to improve cognitive abilities.