The Effectiveness Of Cognitive Training And Self-massage On Cognitive Functions Of The Elderly

Objectives(1) To explore effectiveness of self-massage and the combination of cognitive training and self-massage on cognitive function of the elderly,respectively.(2) To compare effectiveness of the combination of cognitive training and self-massage with self-massage alone on cognitive function of the elderly.Methods The study was an experiment of factorial design.In this study, 150 old people from a community in Changsha City were sampled and randomly assigned to three groups.All subjects were randomly divided into three groups and each was 50.GroupⅠreceived self-massage;groupⅡreceived cognitive training and self-massage;groupⅢdidn't accept any interventions. All the training lasted six months.At baseline and six months follow-up,all participants' data were measured by three instruments including the Mini-mental state examination(MMSE),activities of daily living scale(ADL) and Wechsler Memory Scale China revised edition(WMS-C).A database was established using SPSS13.0 for statistical analysis.Statistical methods general contain:statistical description,t test,X~2 test and repeated measures analysis of variance.Level of significance of this study was set at 0.05.Results(1) Baseline results showed that the mean score of MMSE was 24.32±3.75,ranged from 8 to 30.Of the four dimensions of memory,score of picture recalls was the highest(4.84±3.76),that of word association was the lowest(3.09±2.98),and those of understand memory and recite number were 3.93±2.88,3.91±3.60,respectively.Stepwise regression analysis showed that age,level of education,and ADL were the influential factors of cognitive function of the elderly.(2) Compared with the control group,self-massage and the combination of cognitive training and self-massage could improve cognitive function of the elderly(P＜0.01).(3) The combination of cognitive training and self-massage comparing with self-massage alone was more effective on cognitive function of the elderly (P＜0.01). Conclusions(1) The level of cognitive function in the subjects is normal on the whole;but 20.67%subjects have different degree cognitive impairment. The influential factors of cognitive function include age,educational level,and ADL.(2) Self-massage and the combination of cognitive training and self-massage can significantly improve cognitive function of the elderly, respectively.(3) The combination of cognitive training and self-massage is more effective than self-massage alone on cognitive functions of the elderly.