Speaker
Description
Even when healthy, ageing is associated with a gradual and unavoidable decline in various cognitive functions. These cognitive changes affect older adults' quality of life, well-being, and life expectancy, causing significant welfare political implications worldwide. In this context, cognitive training and stimulation have become valuable interventions to prevent age-related cognitive decline in healthy elderly.
This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to outline different available instruments of cognitive intervention and to quantify their effectiveness for cognitively healthy elderly.
Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science online databases were searched for eligible studies on cognitive interventions for cognitively healthy older adults (age >60). We screened 297 studies. Interventions were single- or multi-domain cognitive training or stimulation, administered individually or in groups, in presence or at a distance, technology-, paper-and-pencil-, or music-based. We considered cognitive outcomes assessed by standardised neuropsychological screening tests before and immediately post-intervention, compared with an active or passive control group. The presence of a follow-up assessment was also investigated.
The analysis revealed the presence of two influential points and no outliers. The estimated overall effect size was 0.25 (95% CI = [0.08, 0.42]). The omnibus test of model coefficients was significant (p < 0.001), while the test for residual heterogeneity resulted as not significant (p = 0.371), so homogeneity between studies can be assumed.
Our preliminary results suggest the effectiveness of cognitive interventions, compared to control group activities, in enhancing global cognitive functioning in the healthy elderly population.
| If you're submitting a poster, would you be interested in giving a blitz talk? | No |
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| If you're submitting a symposium, or a talk that is part of a symposium, is this a junior symposium? | No |
