Effectiveness of Cognitive Stimulation Personalized by the Preexisting Cognitive Level in Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Cognitive stimulation and psychosocial results in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION

Cognitive stimulation (CS) is a popular and cost-effective intervention, which applies different types of techniques focused on cognitive skills and can be administered by different professionals. CS can be defined as activities that involve cognitive processing usually conducted in a social context and often in a group. Therefore, CS can improve psychosocial functioning and quality of life (QoL), depression, anxiety and activities of daily living (ADLs) independent of the pharmacological treatment such as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of CS on psychosocial outcomes in older adults (aged 65 years or over), with healthy cognitive ageing, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia.

METHODS

PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases were examined from inception to October 2021. A total of 1,997 studies were initially identified in these databases. After discarding studies that did not meet the inclusion criteria, 30 studies were finally included in the systematic review and the meta-analysis performed with robust variance estimator (RVE) due the inclusion of studies with repeated measurements. The quality assessment tools from the National Institutes of Health were used to evaluate the quality of the studies.

RESULTS

CS was significantly associated with a higher QoL in participants who received personalized/adapted CS (RVE = 0.11±0.19 [-0.76, 0.99], t(1.86) = 0.6, p = 0.61). .

CONCLUSION

Personalized/adapted CS seems to improve QoL in older adults.

Cognitive stimulation and cognitive results in older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The lack of cognitive activity accelerates age cognitive decline. Cognitive stimulation (CS) tries to enhance cognitive functioning. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of CS on cognitive outcomes (general cognitive functioning and specific cognitive domains) in older adults (aged 65 years or older, cognitively healthy participants, or with mild cognitive impairment, or dementia).

METHODS

PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases were examined from inception to October 2021. A total of 1,997 studies were identified in these databases, and. 33 studies were finally included in the systematic review and the meta-analysis. Raw means and standard deviations were used for continuous outcomes. Publication bias was examined by Egger's Regression Test for Funnel Plot Asymmetry and the quality assessment tools from the National Institutes of Health.

RESULTS

CS significantly improves general cognitive functioning (mean difference=MD = 1.536, 95%CI, 0.832 to 2.240), memory (MD = 0.365, 95%CI, 0.300 to 0.430), orientation (MD = 0.428, 95%CI, 0.306 to 0.550), praxis (MD = 0.278, 95%CI, 0.094 to 0.462) and calculation (MD = 0.228, 95%CI, 0.112 to 0.343).

CONCLUSION

CS seems to increase general cognitive functioning, memory, orientation, praxis, and calculation in older adults.