Authors (including presenting author) :
Cheng KWS(1), Leung SWH(1), Yam YWA(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, MMRC
Introduction :
Prevention of cognitive decline/dementia is one of the main focuses of WHO and worldwide health organizations in the past decade. Among various evidence-based practices of multifactorial management of such issue, promotion of brain health behaviours by lifestyle modification is mostly employed for the purposes of improving/maintaining cognition function, functional independence and quality of life.
Objectives :
This program aimed to promote brain health-related activities in daily living for clients with mild neurocognitive disorder (NCD), and to promote brain reserve to reduce the risk of cognitive decline and development of dementia.
Methodology :
Participants were recruited to join a brain health lifestyle program for 8 weeks (12 - 14 sessions) in group and individual format (from June to December 2022). Exclusion criteria were marked language or mood problems. The main components of the program were 1)education of brain health elements 2)selection of customized brain health activities, 3)daily schedule evaluation and re-design, 4)implementation of brain health lifestyle and 5)evaluation, feedback and sharing.
Occupational Questionnaires (OQ) for evaluation of brain health activities in daily living and Quality of Life after Brain Injury – Overall Scale (QOLIBRI-OS) were conducted in pre and post assessment. One sample t-test was done for pre/post assessment results analysis.
Result & Outcome :
12 with mild NCD (including stroke, head injury, and brain tumour), 7 males and 5 females, ages ranged from 48 to 73, with a mean age of 62.6 were recruited.
There was a statistically significant improvement in OQ scores (t= 4.0021, p=0.0025; 95% CI) It reflected that after joining the 8-weeks brain health lifestyle program, there were a marked increase in brain health-related activities (physical exercises, cognitive stimulating activities, social engagement activities and new goal setting) in their daily living and they were able to make daily schedule and actively include the brain health elements in their daily living. However, there was no statistically significant change in QOLIBRI scores (t= 0.1500, p=0.8838; 95% CI) This statistically significant change in subjective quality of life was not observed after two months of treatment. This might be due to the short period of time of treatment and activity participation during the 5th wave of COVID-19 pandemic. A longer follow-up period for monitoring participants’ maintenance in activity participation and their subjective quality of life was recommended.
