Effect of an art therapy and cognitive stimulation program in older adults with indicators of cognitive impairment

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundNeurodegenerative disease affects the cognitive, behavioral and functional status in older people. Non pharmacological interventions has shown improvement in cognitive, emotional and functional performance. For this reason, we set out to analyze the effect of a combined nonpharmacological intervention program of cognitive stimulation (CS) and art therapy (AT).MethodA mixed factorial quasi‐experimental repeated measures design was used. 127 older adults were evaluated with clinical screening tests. Twenty‐seven participants were selected to whom a neuropsychological battery composed of measures of memory, executive function, verbal fluency and attention. The final group was made up of 13 participants who were divided into two homogeneous groups (Group 1, n = 6 and Group 2, n = 7). The treatment was applied to each group in parallel with 18 sessions (G1 = CS, G2 = AT), after which an intermediate neuropsychological evaluation was carried out. Later the treatments were changed (G1 = AT, G2 = CS). Finally, a cognitive evaluation was carried out in both groups.ResultThe results show that both groups had a significant improvement in working memory and semantic and phonological fluency tasks after cognitive and art therapy intervention. These improvements were maintained after the second treatment, being more noticeable in the group that started with CS and continued with art therapy.ConclusionThese results show us the importance of working with non‐pharmacological strategies for the treatment of patients with indicators of cognitive impairment and the importance of working on combined interventions to improve the cognitive and functional status.