A randomized, two-year study of the efficacy of cognitive intervention on elderly people: the Donostia Longitudinal Study.

BACKGROUND Research on non-pharmacological therapies (cognitive rehabilitation) in old age has been very limited, and most has not considered the effect of interventions of this type over extended periods of time. OBJECTIVE To investigate a new cognitive therapy in a randomized study with elderly people who did not suffer cognitive impairment. METHODS The efficacy of this therapy was evaluated by means of post-hoc analysis of 238 people using biomedical, cognitive, behavioural, quality of life (QoL), subjective memory, and affective assessments. RESULTS Scores for learning potential and different types of memory (working memory, immediate memory, logic memory) for the treatment group improved significantly relative to the untreated controls. CONCLUSIONS The most significant finding in this study was that learning potential continued at enhanced levels in trained subjects over an intervention period lasting two years, thereby increasing rehabilitation potential and contributing to successful ageing.