Early preventive interventions may delay the onset of dementia for people with mild cognitive impairment. This study was designed to examine the effects of the biopsychosocial functional activity program on the cognitive function of community middle to older adults with mild cognitive impairment. A cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted. The experimental group received a 12-month biopsychosocial functional activity program intervention that contained two phases. The first phase was a 6-week teaching program followed by a second-phase home follow-up phase. The measurement was carried out at baseline, 6 months and 12 months after the biopsychosocial functional activity program. The measurement tool was the Chinese version of the Saint Louis University Mental Status Examination. The Generalized Estimating Equations statistical approach was used to analyze the data. The experimental group showed significant short-term and continuous improvement in overall cognitive function in the immediate- and short-term memory domain while the domain of attention and executive function showed improvement on the 12-month measurement compared to the control group. Yet, there was no significant improvement overall and in the three domains of cognitive function for the control group. The findings may become references for advancing the dementia prevention program for communities as well as the national policies for dementia prevention programs.
Keywords: biopsychosocial functional activity program; cognitive function; dementia; mild cognitive impairment.
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