Mental Fit Program: A multifactorial program for cognitive, metacognitive and social participation enhancement of self-validated older adults from Argentina: preliminary results

FELDBERG, C.; TARTAGLINI, M.F.; HERMIDA, P.D.; IRRAZABAL, N.; QUAIN, R.; SOMALE, M.V.; GARCÍA, C.

Chicago

Conferencia; AAIC 2020. Alzheimer´s Association International Conference; 2020

Alzheimer's Association

Background: The prevalence of cognitive disorders in the elderly population increases with time. Cognitive intervention is a broad field that uses different means to increase or maintain these capacities. Multifactor programs work with several aspects involved in cognitive processing simultaneously incorporating cognitive, metacognitive and psychosocial strategies. The aim of the present study is to implement and asses the efficacy of a multifactorial program for cognitive and metacognitive enhancement of self-validated older adults. Method: Design: Comparative, pre-post, longitudinal intervention study. Self-validated subjects over 60 years. Mental Fit participants (n= 47) (M= 70,04 years old; ds= 8.07 years) and controls in the community(n= 57) (M= 69.92 years old; ds= 7.31 years) were assed at the begging and at the end of the program.Instruments: Questionnaire of Social Demographic Data (built ad hoc), Brief Neuropsychological assessment for memory and attention. Metacognition: Metamemory Questionnaire, Inventory of Verbal Episodic Memory Self-efficacy. Procedure: All the participants of the Intervention group took part in the "Memory Fit" seminar. The ?Memory Fit? seminar has a duration of 8 sessions of 90 minutes each, where theoretical and practical tools are provided to improve cognitive performance in everyday life and they were also invited to take part in other activities like academical, artistic workshops, and specialist ´s talks about healthy habits. Controls were assed twice with eight weeks of difference between the first and second evaluation.Results: Results reveal that when comparing the groups, statistically significant differences can be observed in favor of Mental Fit participants in: memory self-efficacy measures before intervention (M=7.5 , SD=1.93) and after (M=8.26 , SD =1.91 t (-2.5)= ; p