Cognitive Intervention For Individuals With Probable MCI: A Pilot Study

The dementia population has accumulated to 47 million people, creating an $818 billion global expense. Approximately 20% of people 65 and older are living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer's disease. Cognitive intervention strategies have the potential to reduce the prevalence of dementia due to their ability to slow the conversion to dementia. Speech-language pathologists are uniquely positioned to identify and treat cognitive impairments. If intervention strategies could delay the onset of dementia by five years, there could be a 57% decrease in the dementia population. A single group, pre/post-test design was used. Thirty-six elders at-risk for cognitive decline participated. Eight weeks of group-based, cognitive-linguistic intervention was administered, implementing language stimulation, social engagement, and person-centered memory strategies. Measures of verbal episodic memory, linguistic comprehension and expression, mental status, and visuospatial skills were administered pre- and post-intervention. Data was analyzed using paired samples t-tests. Significant differences were found of assessment measures of linguistic comprehension, linguistic expression, and visuospatial construction following the intervention. Results nearing significance were found on assessment measures of verbal episodic memory. These results support the hypothesis that group-based, cognitive-linguistic intervention programs have the potential to improve cognition and language. Additional research is merited.