The Effect of Brain Gym on Global Cognitive Function of Institutionalized Older People

Abstract

Cognitive function of older adults is influenced by several factors such as age, sex, education, and physical activity so that it can impact the decrease in progressive cognitive function. It is necessary to implement cognitive training in old people’s care to prevent or delay the onset of age-related cognitive decline. Brain gym is a series of simple motion exercises and is an alternative therapy that stimulates the brain. This study aims to evaluate the effect of brain gym as a cognitive training intervention on global cognitive functioning of institutionalized older population. The study is a non-randomized quasi-experimental one using pre-and post-test control group design. The participants of the study were 65 years old or older who had been part of gerontological centers from a local community. They were divided into two groups: control and intervention, each one with 15 people. Mini-Mental State Examination was applied to the sample before and after the cognitive training. The brain gym training consists of bi-weekly group meeting for 12 weeks, lasting 50 min each. The treated group had a significantly better global cognitive function. Recalling (memory), orientation and language skills were the domains with the most significant changes (p < 0.05). On the other hand, no significant changes were found in the participants of control groups during post test. Our results suggest that cognitive training based in brain gym improves global cognitive function of institutionalized older people lease type your abstract here. Abstract of a research paper is typically 200 to 400 words in length, and 150 to 300 words for a review paper. Abstract shall be running continuously (not structured) and shall not include reference citations. Abbreviations that appear only once in the abstract should be defined in full. If abbreviations appear more than once, the full definitions should be provided first before they can be used elsewhere.