Effects Of Memory Training On Memory Of The Elderly With Forgotten Mild Cognitive Impairment

Background:Amnestic mild cognitive impairment(aMCI) is the critical period to prevent the occurrence of Alzheimer disease. Social interaction, complex activities of daily living and quality of life of these people are adversely influenced by aMCI. However, it is given insufficient attention by the eldly and their family beacause the first symptom of aMCI is memory declining. Studies abroad show that the memory of aMCI could be effectively improved by memory training which is an effective methods to delay progression of aMCI to Alzheimer disease. But the intervention study towards the people with aMCI in our country is still in the beginning stages. In order to confirm the effect of memory training to aMCI early intervention and to provide a basis for large-scale population-based interventions to aMCI in community, screening and intervention to aMCI in community was carried out in our study.Objective:To compare the differences of memory (behavioral memory, satisfaction of memory) and quality of life between the intervention group and the control group after memory training and the differences before and after memory training in the intervention group, and evaluate the memory training process.Methods:A quasi-experimental study was used in this study. Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Mini-Mental State of Examination, Activities of Daily Living, the Geriatric Depression Scale had been used in screening the aMCI from 332 old people by researcher in FangZhuang community in BeiJing during Aug.2012 and Jan.2013.88 old people who fit for diagnostic criteria of aMCI and the inclusive and exclusive criterion were sampled conveniently, and then divided into the intervention group and the control group according to the district of FangZhuang community they lived in. The control group received a health education, The same measures with the addition of 5 weeks memory training(3 times/week) were given to intervention group. Rivermead behavioral memory test, Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire-Contentment, Quality of Life-AD were used to evaluate their memory, the contentment of their memoty and quality of life("psychology", "heath and behavior compliance", "life environment and social relationship" and "life satisfactory") on 4 time points(before intervention, after intervention,2 weeks after intervention and 2 months after intervention). The differences of the 3 indictators on 4 time points respectively between the two groups were compared and analysed, and the differences of the 3 indictators between 4 time points were compared in intervention group. The questionnaire of "time, contents, way of memory training" were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the process of memory training.Results:67 aMCI people complete all data collection.31 of them were in intervention gr oup, the others were in control group. The results of the study showed that (1) Compared with control group, the behavioral memory of intervention group received additional memory training has improved significantly (P<0.05), while memory satisfaction (P> 0.05), total score and dimensions of quality of life showed no significant change (P> 0.05), on the 3 time points (after intervention,2 weeks after intervention and 2 months after intervention), but the D-value between before intervention and after intervention showed a significant difference, the intervention group was higher, which meant that there was a tendency to be better. (2) Different time points comparison of the intervention group found that the patients received memory training intervention remarkable behavioral memory increased (P<0.05) within 2 months after intervention; memories satisfaction shew increasing within 2 weeks after intervention, while declining on points of 2 months after intervention (P<0.05); quality of life score, living environment and social relations, physical health and behavioral compliance within 2 weeks after the intervention had improved (P<0.05). And improvement of the total score of quality of life, "psychology", "life environment and social relationship" and "life satisfactory" simultaneously are observed. (3) 95% of the patients were satisfied with the time, content and way of memory training process.Conclusion:Behavioral memory of aMCI was effectively improved by memory training, while the contentment of memory was improved to a certain extent, and quality of life had a tendency to be better. The "photo-name spaced retrieval training" could be chosen in the training of the aMCI.