Elderly adults improve verbal fluency by videophone conversations: a pilot study.
We conducted videophone conversations with elderly adults living in a nursing home to discover whether their verbal ability was improved by repeated remote conversations. The control group comprised five elderly adults. The experimental group comprised six elderly adults, including three patients with dementia. They took part in three videophone conversations and their verbal ability was measured before and after the conversations. During the sessions, the participants and volunteers talked about themselves and participated in a quiz. In the experimental group, the mean number of words generated increased from 4.8 to 6.5 after the session (P < 0.05); this increase was not observed in the control group. The experimental group also showed an improvement in words generated after indirect conversations. Videophone conversations appear to have some positive effects on verbal ability and may be beneficial in the cognitive rehabilitation of elderly adults.
National Institute of Floricultural Science, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8519, Japan. hirokom@affrc.go.jp
Hiroko
H
Mochizuki-Kawai
Mayumi
M
Tanaka
Takaji
T
Suzuki
Yuriko
Y
Yamakawa
Satoshi
S
Mochizuki
Masanobu
M
Arai
Mitsuru
M
Kawamura
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D049269:Videoconferencing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data