Effectiveness of an Occupational Therapy Memory Strategy Education Group Intervention on Memory Difficulties and Activities of Daily Living Performance among the Geriatric Population: A Quasi-experimental Study

Abstract

Introduction: Memory deficits are one of the common indications of cognitive aging, and they are an essential component for completing day-to-day activities in an effective, timely, and safe manner. Disturbances in memory can have a major impact on an individual’s performance in all areas of occupation. Memory alterations have a substantial influence on numerous elements of everyday living, including sentiments and conceptions of self, connections with others, participation in Activities of Daily Living (ADL), and engagement in leisure activities. Aim: To determine the effectiveness of an occupational therapy Memory Strategy Education Group (MSEG) intervention on memory difficulties and its impact on ADL performance among the geriatric population. Materials and Methods: The present quasi-experimental pre-post-test pilot study was conducted at Department of Occupational Therapy, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 10 participants aged 60 years and above were recruited from a community setting through convenience sampling and were divided into an experimental group (n=5) and a control group (n=5). The experimental group participants received MSEG intervention, while the control group participants received conventional occupational therapy memory intervention for three weeks. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), Contextual Memory Test (CMT), and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) were used to measure occupational performance, memory, and ADL. The outcome measure scores within groups were analysed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and the comparison of outcome measures between the groups was analysed using the MannWhitney U test. An alpha level of p=0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 24.0 version was used to analyse the data. Results: In the present study, a total of 10 participants from the age group of 60-75 years (mean age=67.4 years) were included, and each group (control and experimental) consisted of five participants (3 males and 2 females). The results showed that there was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the post-test scores of the experimental and control groups in COPM-Performance and CMT (p=0.032; p=0.018, respectively). However, there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) in the post-test scores of the experimental and control groups in FIM (p=0.347). Further analysis revealed a clinically significant difference between the control and experimental groups in post-test scores. Conclusion: The results of the study concluded that the MSEG intervention is effective in improving memory difficulties in the geriatric population but had a lesser effect on improving ADL performance.