Investigating the Use of Rehabilitation based on Play Therapy to Increase the Attention of Medical Students

Objectives: Attention is one of the cognitive functions that can be enhanced through cognitive rehabilitation. Play therapy is a treatment option for cognitive impairments. The present research aimed to investigate the use of rehabilitation based on play therapy to increase the attention of medical students. Methods: The present research is a randomized controlled clinical trial. In 2022, the statistical population included all 162 third-year College of Medicine students at the University of Baghdad. Utilizing simple random sampling, the statistical sample of 70 people was selected and separated into intervention and control groups (35 persons in each group). Play therapy was provided to those in the intervention group, while those in the control group didn't have any intervention. The IVA-2 CPT software was used in this study to assess visual and auditory attention as well as response control performance. The pre- and post-test stages were separated by a 15-week period. The data were analyzed with the multivariate covariance (MANCOVA) analysis in SPSS.23. The statistical significance level was less than 0.05. Results: The results indicated a statistically significant differ between the intervention group's mean pre-test and post-test scores (P<0.001); thus, the rehabilitation based on play therapy has significantly enhanced attention in the intervention group. Also, the post-test results revealed a statistically significant differ between the both groups (P<0.001). Conclusion: A rehabilitation based on play therapy is an impressive way to increase people's attention.