Investigação comparativa de desempenho cognitivo entre idosos ativos e sedentários em um centro de atendimento comunitário

Abstract

Population aging is a worldwide reality. In Brazil, to exemplify, the elderly population grew up in numbers from three to twenty million, approximately, between 1960 and 2008. This change had a decisive influence on Brazil´s epidemiological profile. Within a few decades ago, the terms of mortality conditions were mainly related to infectious diseases, currently there is a preponderance of chronic-degenerative diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, hyperplasia of the respiratory system and dementias, among others. Regarding the dementias, some recent experiences have shown that non-pharmacological interventions may enhance the drug treatment of these. Within this perspective, the present study proceeded in two phases. At first, using a battery of neuropsychological evaluations, was raised, comparatively, the cognitive profile of active and sedentary seniors who attend to a specialized senior care center in the city of Manaus. In the second phase, was developed and implemented a Program for elderly people, who were identified as suffering of cognitive functions decline at first. The intervention consisted of a cognitive stimulation program, performed in twelve sessions, with weekly frequency and duration of 90 minutes. The sample consisted of 203 people, while 133 (65.5%) were females. From the total, 83 (40.9%) performed some type of physical exercise on a regular way and the schooling ranged from zero to 21 years, with an average of 4.39 and standard deviation of 4.01 years. Thirty five seniors participated in the second phase of the program and responded to a neuropsychological evaluation after the end of the program. Among the instruments used, such as the word list test, mini-mental state examination and Wisconsin card sorting, detected improvement in cognitive functioning, in statistically significant levels. Results show considerable gains in several cognitive components after stimulation process and suggest that the technique could be applied in both research and clinical practice. For this one, it is recommended that the program should be tested in a longer format or even as a continued action.