Evaluation of the ProDC as a resource in cognitive rehabilitation: pilot study

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the
infl uence of system Promoting Cognitive Performance (ProDC) on cognitive performance of elderly people with mild cognitive impairment or with mild dementia. A quasi-experimental design was used in a pilot study of participants aged 60 years or more, of both sexes, classified with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia, through the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR). The elderly participated in activities to cognitive training using ProDC. The activities occurred three times a week, totaling 10 meetings. To measure the effect of intervention tools were used: Mini Mental State Examination, Clock Drawing Test, Test of recognition 10 Figures and Semantic Fluency Test. Descriptive statistics and Student’s t test for paired samples. The study included eight participants, mean age 70.75 ± 8.45 years (62-81 years) and
average education of 10.12 ± 4.09 years of study. The statistical analysis showed maintenance of cognitive performance after the intervention in Clock Drawing Test (7.62 ± 2.20 vs 7.25 ± 2.49, p = 0.476), in Test of recognition 10 Figures (9.62 ± 0,52 vs 9.75 ± 0,71, p = 0.732) in the FAS (17.75 ± 5.50 vs 17.62 ± 4.72, p = 0.938) and Mini Mental State Examination (26.50 ± 5.24 vs 26.67 ± 2.58, p = 0.921). There were no statistically signifi cant improvements in performance of the elderly. However, results indicated important aspects to be discussed when choosing games
for implementation in the clinical setting and development of future studies.