Occupational therapy in the elderly as a strategy to prevent cognitive impairment

Abstract

Nowadays there exists the possibility of possessing occupational therapies (OT) in the centers of attention to the Major Adult that theoretically they can help to anticipate the Cognitive Deterioration and to allowing that they should realize in an independent way his basic activities of the daily life (BADL). Objetive: To demonstrate the effect that the occupational therapies have in the major adult as strategy to anticipate the cognitive deterioration and to allow that the BADL should continue developing in an independent way. Methodology: Type of Pre-experimental investigation (Expost-fact), prospective, longitudinal, analytical. Comparative level of investigation. Sample of 14 major adults of the center gerontology DIF Tacuba, selected of way not probabilístic. One proceeded to value the BADL and the cognitive condition (CC) using the instruments Katz’s Index and Folstein’s MMSE respectively. Both measurements throw puntajes. There is realized K-S’s statistical test to demonstrate normality of the information and Wilcoxon’s test is applied to compare the initial puntaje against the final puntaje of the follow-up. The level of significancy was fixed in 0.05. Results: Only 7 % of the subjects is in the salesman’s category to realize his BADL. The comparison of the measurements of the BADL demonstrated that in this sample of subjects, there was no difference in the average qualification of the initial and final measurement (p> 0.05). As for the CC, our findings indicate that neither there were differences between the initial and final measurement (p> 0.05). In agreement to our results, the occupational therapies support without changes the BADL and the CC of the major adults, which means that in the observed group neither improvement nor deterioration happened, nevertheless to individual level if changes are observed. Conclusion: In a general way, the TO supports without changes both the boss of BADL and the CC in the major adults.