Regular A Multimodal Intervention to Improve Cognition in Community- dwelling Older Adults

Objective: To examine the effects of a multimodal intervention composed of cognitive training, physical exercise, and group counseling on cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults. Design: A four-armed, quasi-experimental intervention study. Setting andParticipants: Community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and older (n = 153). Intervention: Participants were allocated into multimodal intervention, cognitive training plus Taichi exercise, cognitive training, or control group. The multimodal intervention included 18 sessions of cognitive training, 18 sessions of Taichi, and 6 sessions of group reminiscence over six weeks.Measurements: Cognitive function, depressive symptoms, and psychological well-being were assessed at the baseline, postintervention, and three-month follow-up. The primary outcome was the change in overall cognition measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and a composite cognitive score derived from a battery of neuropsychological tests.Results: For MoCA, there was no significant difference between any of the three intervention groups and controls. For composite cognition, all three intervention groups showed improvements at the three-month follow-up, with a large effect size in the cognitive training plus Taichi group (change difference 0.37, 95% CI 0.18-0.56, Hedge's g = 0.92), and medium effect sizes in the multimodal intervention group (change difference 0.23, 95% CI 0.0 -0.42, g = 0.58) and cognitive training group (change difference 0.22, 95% CI 0.03-0.42, g = 0.55). Conclusions: Multimodal intervention, cognitive training plus Taichi, and cognitive training could foster cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults. The combination of cognitive training and Taichi showed greater efficacy than the other two interventions. (Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2022; 30:1003-1014)

Automated summary

This study aimed to examine the effects of a multimodal intervention consisting of cognitive training, physical exercise, and group counseling on cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults. The results showed that the combination of cognitive training and Taichi exercise had a greater effect on improving cognitive function than the other interventions.