The effect of preventing transition from mild cognitive impairment to early dementia by hand care treatment in the environment of horticultural therapy garden

Nearly 47.5 million people worldwide have dementia in the world in 2015. In Japan, the challenge to families and health and social services is substantial. In this study, we examined whether hand care treatment (HCT) was effective in preventing transition from MCI (mild cognitive impairment) to early dementia. In addition, if the operation environment for hand care treatment was a horticultural garden, we also examined whether there was a difference in the transition prevention effect from MCI to initial dementia. Clients were elderly persons using an elderly person facility of social welfare corporation Knaji-kai, an elderly person with MMSE (mini-mental state) 24-27 points or Moca-J 25 points or less as MCI in advance evaluation, and an elderly person 70 years or older not applicable as the normal elderly (placebo groups). In the pre-evaluation, the pre-evaluation, people with an MMSE score of 24-27 and those with an MMSE score of 28 or more and a Moca-J (The Japanese version of Montreal Cognitive Assessment) score of 25 or less were considered MCI. As a result, In the MMSE assessment 9 months after at the start of HCT, in the indoor HCT subjects and the HT Garden HCT subjects, there was no transition from MCI to dementia, and 3 of 12 MCI on placebo subjects who received usual care transitioned. Changes over time in some evaluations after 9 months were compared with those at the start. The indoor HCT subjects and the HT Garden HCT subjects tended to improve from the maintenance score of MMSE and Moca-J cognitive evaluation. The placebo subjects tended to decline from maintenance.