The Effectiveness of Cognitive Rehabilitation on Improving the Selective Attention in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on improving selective attention in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test. The population in this study was all individuals referred to a neurology clinic in Tehran in 2012. The group was comprised of 40 patients with mild cognitive impairment who were evaluated with early detection and assessment by a medical psychologist (MMSE score lower than 25 and Wechsler memory test) and were selected by available sampling. They were also older than 55 years and had a minimum education at degree level, together with a lack of neurological and psychiatric comorbidities and impaired sensory and motor retardation, according to their nursing history and medi-cal records. They were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (20 patients in each group). The experi-mental group was given 12 sessions (two hours each section) of cognitive rehabilitation with Neurocognitive Joyful Attentive Training Intervention (NEJATI). The control group, as expected with this group, did not receive any trial pe-riod. The selective attention of both groups was evaluated, before and after receiving intervention, by a Strop computer programme. Data were analysed using the covariance statistical test, MANCOVA. Results: The results show an in-crease in selective attention scores in the experimental group compared with the control group. Therefore, we can con-clude that cognitive rehabilitation leads to improvement in the performance of selective attention (F = 4/97; sig < 0/05). Conclusion: Cognitive rehabilitation can impact on improving selective focus in people with mild cognitive impairment.