Abstract:
Older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are likely to present an increased risk of developing dementia unless treated. This research aimed to develop a combined finger fitness and music therapy program, and to study its effects on episodic memory performance and biomarkers in older adults with MCI. Sixty older adults with MCI were randomly assigned to a control group who received no intervention program, to experimental group 1 who received the finger fitness combined with music therapy program, and to experimental group 2 who received only the music therapy program. The research design was a 2 Factor pretest posttest control group design. The research instruments included the Finger Fitness combined with music therapy program, the music therapy program, the mnemonic similarity task, and the instruments necessary for biomarker measurements. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi Square, one way ANOVA, dependent t-test, one way ANCOVA and correlation analysis The results revealed that after training, experimental group 1 had a recognition memory scores average and a lure discrimination index (LDI) higher than that of experimental group 2 and also higher than that of the control group at a statistical significance level of .01. However, the average of recognition scores and the LDI of the experimental group 2 did not differ to that of the control group. Moreover, it was found that after training, experimental group 1 and experimental group 2 both showed a decrease in biomarker levels when compared to the control group at the statistical significance levels of .001 and .05 respectively. In conclusion, the finger fitness combined with music therapy program was effective in increasing episodic memory performance and decreasing biomarker levels in older adults with MCI. However, the music therapy program by itself could not increase episodic memory program although it could decrease biomarker levels in the older adults with MCI.