Multimodal mental exercises improved verbal fluency as one of the effects of the health promotion project for preventive care in a Japanese agricultural area

Chifumi Iseki¹⁾, Yoshimi Takahashi¹⁾, Manabu Wada¹⁾, Toru Kawanami¹⁾, Kyoko Suzuki²⁾, Takeo Kato¹⁾

¹⁾Department of Neurology, Hematology, Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Diabetology (DNHMED), Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata University
²⁾Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Yamagata University Graduate School of Medicine

Local governments in Japan are conducting health promotion projects for preventive care. However, each project has rarely been evaluated its outcomes objectively and lacks specific approaches for non-participants. We conducted a project for all the residents who are 40 years or older in a rural community in Yamagata;the number of participants were 92. The program consisted of workshops at a community center and participation in daily exercise, either multimodal mental exercise or physical exercise, at home. The multimodal mental exercise included reading stories loudly, easy calculation, coloring, drawing and keeping a diary. The participants were assessed before and after the project by neuropsychological examinations (Mini-Mental State Examination, Symbol Digit Modality Test, verbal fluency tests, digit span, motor programming, and planning). Both participants and non-participants answered self-recording questionnaires (Geriatric Depression Scale and a part of Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome). The participants who engaged in multimodal mental exercise showed an improvement in verbal fluency after 7 months in compared with participants in physical exercise did not show such an improvement. The number of invalid responses were greater in non-participants' answers than those of the participants though the scores of self-recording questionnaires did not differ between groups.

Address correspondence to Chifumi Iseki, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Neurology, Hematology, Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Diabetology (DNHMED), Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata University (2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-2331, Japan)