In this research, we apply therapeutic recreation program to dementia olds, and prove the effect of this program on cognitive function of dementia olds. To achieve the goal of this research, we divide this study into two research problems as follows.
research problem 1. How does therapeutic recreation program affect on cognitive function of dementia olds?
research problem 2. which factor dose enhance the cognitive function of dementia olds?
To solve these research problems, we analyze total 30 people of Day-Care room of Social Welfare Center located in Seoul (experimental group:15, control group:15) suffering mild dementia whose age is greater than 65, and have score of K-MMSE(Korean Mini-Mental State Examination) between 15 and 23. For the experimental group, we enforce this program total 12 times which is applied to them once a week, 60 minuets for every treatment.
We measure the level of cognitive function of targets by K-MMSE tool which is changed by Yeonwook Kang and others(1997)
Data is analyzed by SPSS/PC 12.0 program with scored factors and general characteristic of homophile of the groups is analyzed by chi-square(X²) test. We present of targets' general characteristic using frequency study, and the homophile about the difference of the cognitive function between before and after the therapeutic recreation is analyzed by Mann-Whitney Wilcoxon Rank Sum W test which is statistical method for non-perimetric. We apply Wilcoxon test to compare the changes between before and after the therapeutic recreation program, of experimental and control group.
Summary of the research through analysis is as follows.
Since, there are no considerable difference of general characteristic between homophile of experimental and control group analyzed by chi-square test, we can verify that those two groups have similar characteristics. Cognitive function of two groups(before and after the program) verified by Mann-Whitney Wilcoxon Rank Sum W test shows that experimental group has 17.73 points and control group has 18.60 points. Therefore, there are no considerable difference between them and we can conclude those two groups are same groups.
To verify that the average test score of pre-test of those two groups are meaningful in point of statistics, we analyze the result using Wilcoxon test and we check that experimental group's total score of cognitive function shows significant difference. Therefore, we verify that the program can enhance the cognitive function of experimental group from 17.73 points to 19.07 points. However, there is no considerable change of points for the control group(from 18.60 to 18.27).
Analysis using Mann-Whitney Wilcoxon Rank Sum W test for experimental and control group shows considerable statistic difference(U=26.5, p=.000). In the case of the experimental group, the average difference(1.33) of test score between before and after the program is greater than the difference of control group's(-0.33).
So far, we verify that the therapeutic recreation program affects on the cognitive function of dementia olds. Therefore, we can propose that the program of this research is effective program to enhance the cognitive function of dementia olds.
Based on the result of this research, we discuss practical implication of the therapeutic recreation program targeting dementia olds, and finally we propose limit of the research and our future work.