ABSTRACT

The increase in the old population means a rapid increase in the number of patients suffering from various geriatric diseases, including dementia. This study was a pilot study to examine the effects of a neurological music therapy program developed to improve or prevent cognitive function decline and an algorithm of the program. For this purpose, 19 community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment were recruited, some of whom participated in a one-session program while the others in an eight-session program. To measure the effect of program participation, the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) was administered to participants four times: immediately before participating in the program, 30 minutes after completion of program participation, one week after the completion, and two weeks after the completion. As a result of analyzing the data of those who participated in only one-session, it was found that K-MMSE scores significantly increased only immediately after the end of the program compared to immediately before the program was implemented. However, in the group that participated in the eight-session program, it was found that the K-MMSE score maintained a significant increase immediately after the end of the program and one week after the end of the program compared to just before the program was implemented, but returned to the level just before the program was implemented at two weeks after the end of the program. The findings showed that the effects of this program, which was developed to improve the cognitive abilities of older people with mild cognitive impairment, were maintained for only a relatively short period of one week. However, it was discussed that the findings might have been due to problems with the suitability of dependent measures, and thus follow-up studies were proposed to make up the problems and look at algorithms such as program sessions.