Effects of Customized Programs in Long-Term Care Institutions on Cognitive and Physical Functions of the Elderly

The purpose of this study is to conduct a customized program for the elderly with mild cognitive impairment and mild-severe physical functional impairment who use day care facilities among the long-term care facilities for the elderly and to verify their effectiveness. To this end, 16 elderly people in the experimental group and 16 in the control group were studied using two day care facilities located in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. The customized program conducted by the experimental group is a cognitive-physical activity program that provides cognitive support from the 3rd grade of long-term care insurance for the elderly, and it is composed by reflecting real awareness training, cognitive stimulation activities, exercise therapy, music activities, group programs, family education and family participation programs proposed by the Health Insurance Corporation. Group learning of customized programs includes exercise therapy, reality recognition training, cognitive training therapy, recall therapy, cognitive stimulation therapy, and music therapy, and individual learning was conducted to improve persistence and cognitive function through activity sheets. The treatment program was conducted over three weeks, with one session being about 30 minutes for group activities and 20 minutes for individual activities, and the intervention was conducted four times a week, with a total of 15 sessions. To measure the effectiveness of the customized program, cognitive function was analyzed for CIST, physical function was analyzed for grip strength, leg flexibility, and core muscle changes. As a result of the study, the customized program was effective in improving the cognitive-physical function of the elderly using the day care center. Therefore, it is expected that it can be usefully used as a customized program that can maintain and improve the residual function of the elderly using long-term care facilities. Based on the results of this study, limitations and suggestions for further research were presented