The effect of cognitive stimulation on the progression of cognitive impairment in subjects with Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

The overall objective of this study was to examine the impact of a cognitive stimulation intervention model on subjects with mild-moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. The stimulation intervention consisted of carrying out cognitive activities with a small group of participants during a 6-month period. The program designed included 3 weekly 1-h sessions that always targeted the same two functions using different tasks. The pretest-posttest study design was carried out on two groups of patients: the control group, and the experimental group receiving the intervention. The sample consisted of 20 patients, aged between 66 and 89 years (M = 81.90; SD = 5.476), attending a day care center. Cognitive stimulation was conducted on the subjects in the experimental group three times a week for 6 months. The statistical analysis performed was a repeated measures ANOVA, with the groups (intervention vs. no intervention) being the between-subject factor. The aim was to detect interaction between two different factors. Interaction was found between the scores obtained for comprehension (F(1, 18) = 4.662, d = −0.963, p-value = 0.045), visual reproduction copy (F(1, 18) = 7.106, d = −1.07; p-value = 0.016) and word list recognition (F(1, 18) = 5.345; d = −1.038; p-value = 0.003). We can conclude that this model of intervention maintained the cognitive performance of patients with mild-moderate AD with respect to reasoning, constructive praxis and the recognition of word lists, while the control group showed a deterioration in these functions within 6-month period.