Introduction: Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of dementia and is characterized as a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of brain exercises on working memory and sustained attention in elderly individuals with Alzheimer's disease.
Materials and Methods:
The present study is a semi-experimental, applied investigation employing a pretest-posttest design with follow-up, aimed at examining the effectiveness of a brain exercise training program on working memory and sustained attention in elderly individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. A total of 26 elderly individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease participated in the study. They were selected via convenience sampling and randomly allocated to either the experimental or control group. After completing the pretest, the experimental group underwent a training program comprising 12 sessions of 30 minutes each, conducted over a six-week period. Written informed consent was obtained from all elderly participants. Data were collected at three stages—pretest, posttest, and follow-up—and analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), using SPSS (version 22).
Results:
The results demonstrated a significant improvement from pretest to posttest in sustained attention (P=0.001) and working memory (P=0.001) among the elderly participants with Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, these improvements were maintained at the follow-up stage (P=0.99). In addition, the mean scores of working memory and sustained attention in the experimental group changed from 64.15 ± 2.19 to 68.38 ± 1.51 and from 10.23 ± 0.81 to 1.92 ± 0.26, respectively.
Conclusion: Given the significant improvements in cognitive health among older adults diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and the demonstrated benefits of brain exercise training on attention and working memory, it is recommended to implement such exercises as an effective intervention to enhance the condition of elderly individuals.