The Effectiveness of Drug Therapy With Perceptual-Motor Exercises on the Working Memory of Elderly Women With Mild Cognitive Impairment Living in Nursing Homes

One of the common problems of old age is cognitive disorders that seriously affect the daily life of the elderly. This research was conducted with the aim of the effectiveness of perceptual-motor exercises on the working memory of elderly women with mild cognitive impairment who use drugs.

This research was practical and with a semi-experimental method with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population consisted of elderly women over 65 years of age with mild cognitive impairment, drug users and inactive residents of nursing homes in Tehran. 30 elderly people living in one of the nursing homes were selected based on the inclusion criteria and randomly divided into two groups of 15 people, experimental and control. Participants completed Folstein Cognitive Status and Wechsler Memory questionnaire. The control group did their daily activities. The experimental group participated in the perceptual-motor training program three sessions a week for eight weeks. Both groups took their medicines regularly. After the training program, both groups completed the Wechsler Memory questionnaire again. Univariate analysis of covariance and SPSS version 20 software were used for data analysis (P≤0.05).

The results of the statistical analysis after the training intervention showed a significant improvement in the post-test scores of the experimental group in the working memory variable (P=0.009) compared to the control group.

According to the results of the research, it is suggested to the elderly and managers of nursing homes to use perceptual-motor exercises in order to improve cognitive health, according to their individual ability and environmental facilities.