A growing number of research indicates that older adults in assisted living facilities can delay or even prevent cognitive decline through interventions that combine multiple activities, such as improving diet, solving puzzles and increasing social interactions.
Multidomain interventions, including games and exercises that are supplied by means of smartphone-based apps, have also been effective in slowing down the cognitive decline of this population.
Such an intervention is the Silvia program, a free, cognitive lifestyle app for healthcare that offers one-on-one coaching of a clinical psychologist, cognitive exercises and activities, personalized routine suggestions and a speech analysis tool that detect symptoms of dementia can.
Until now, the impact of the Silvia program on the cognitive decline in older adults with mild cognitive disorder had not been broadly studied.
To investigate the issue, researchers Junhyoung “Paul” Kim, PhD and Marcia Ory, PhD, of the Texas A & M University School of Public Health, Yongseop Kim, PhD, of the University of Utah, and two representatives of Silvia Health, Inc., Pilot tested the Indian program with resident program.
Their studies were recently published in Public Health and Practice.
We have evaluated the general efficacy of the Silvia program on the cognitive functioning of these residents, while also investigating whether age or gender influenced the results. This is important, since many residents of the supported residential facilities are confronted with challenges such as social isolation and limited access to health care, which can aggravate cognitive decline. Tools such as the Silvia program can offer valuable support. “
Junhyoung “Paul” Kim, PhD, researcher, Texas A & M University School of Public Health
The researchers recruited 20 residents who experienced a mild cognitive disorders and conducted a randomized clinical study with 10 participants who received the Silvia intervention and 10 in a control group that had no interventions.
The average age of the participants was 78 years and the relationships of men and women were comparable. However, training levels differed, where seven participants in the control group and three intervention group participants reported less than a high school education or just a high school education.
The intervention of the Silvia program included daily goals, cognitive training by 15 personalized programs and monitoring of food, activity and sleep patterns. It also contained a home-based aerobic and resistance exercise program with visual step-by-step guides. Cognitive training sessions were held three times a week, with 15 to 30 minutes each, for 12 weeks. Physical exercises were performed twice a week, with each session lasting 30 minutes. In the meantime, the control group maintained their usual routines without using the app.
“Participants in the Silvia program were also concerned with individualized conversations generated by AI about their activities, including the difficulty of tasks, time spent and cognitive exercises,” Kim explained.
Although the initial cognitive assessments did not show a significant difference in the baseline scores between the two groups, the cognitive assessment of Montreal and other statistical analyzes revealed that the Silvia group displayed a significant improvement (p = 0.04), while the control group showed a non -significant decisive decay).
The intervention group also showed improvements in visuospatial/executive function (the possibility of successfully completing a task), language, delayed recall and orientation scores. Their attention scores, however, fell and naming and abstractions scores remained unchanged.
The control group showed non -significant increase in visuospatial/executive function, naming and abstractions scores, with falls in language and delayed recall scores and no changes in attention and orientation scores.
“Our study shows that adapted mobile multidomain programs can benefit older adults who experience a mild cognitive decline,” said Kim. “The potential for even greater results as these programs are further refined and extensive is enormous.”
Source:
Journal Reference:
Kim, Y., et Alt Alto. (2024). The efficacy of a mobile-based multidomain program on cognitive functioning of residents in supported living facilities. Public health in practice. doi.org/10.1016/J.PuHIP.2024.100528.