Preserving motor abilities through functional stimulation in institutionalized elderly with probable alzheimer’s disease

• Autor(a) principal: Catela, David
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Aucineia, Maria, Branco, Marco A. C.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.15/4759
• topic: alzheimer; elderly; motor abilities; functional stimulation; motor abilities; institutionalized; autonomous

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of a program of functional motor stimulation in institutionalized elderly with probable Alzheimer’s disease. Methods: Participants were 60 elderly, divided in three groups: Normal Aging (SA) (n = 13), autonomous and non-institutionalized; Probable Alzheimer Without Intervention (CASI) (n = 18), institutionalized and not actively involved in the program; and, Probable Alzheimer With Intervention (CACI) (n = 29), institutionalized and actively involved in the program. Diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was confirmed through medical report, and subjects were classified according to the Clinical Dementia Rating scores. Finger-tapping test (FTT) was administered for index finger of the preferred hand. The program had a duration of 12 sessions, 2 per week, and was conducted at the nursing homes.Results: SA performance was higher than the remaining groups and the normal one for these ages. From the pre to the posttest, the CASI lowered their performance, but the CACI improved theirs and became more homogeneous. While the CACI maintained a performance not significantly different to SA in the pretest, the CASI revealed a significantly lower performance than the SA, in both test moments. In addition, whereas in the pretest the CACI did not differ significantly from the CASI, in the posttest they tended to display an improvement in performance. Conclusion: The functional motor stimulation program allowed elderly with AD to preserve their speed in a task of fine motor coordination, measured by the FTT.