Study on Brain Gym and Cognitive Functions of Seniors

Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council Dr Elsa SH LEE

Methodology and Result

In order to investigate the relationship between Brain Gym® and Cognitive Functions of Seniors, the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council (HKSKHWC) has successfully collected results of 120 subjects in 5 elderly services units from Dec 2009 to Feb 2010. All of the targets were assessed with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Hong Kong version (HK-MoCA) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-4) before and after the intervention period. The intervention group needed to attend at least 3 times 10-minute Brain Gym® 5 movement training per week while the duration was 4 weeks. The 5 movements are “Sipping Water “Brain Buttons” “The Cross Crawl” “Hook-ups” and “The Thinking Cap”.

The HKSKHWC has analyzed one-hundred and twenty subjects participated with 70 and 50 assigned to the control and intervention groups, respectively. There were no differences in age, sex and education between the two groups. There were no significant differences in the proportion of changes in the HK-MoCA total score or the GDS between the two groups. However, there was a significantly higher proportion of subjects in the intervention group having improved relative to the control group in the attention domain in the HK-MoCA (p=0.004). These results showed that Brain Gym® movement may improve the attention function of seniors.

Case Sharing

Tang Po Kam is 86 years old who lives alone. She found that her memory has deteriorated a lot a year ago. She might forget what to do when she walked from bedroom to sitting room. She might have taken out a piece of meat from the fridge while she planned to wash the vegetable a minute ago. She was very anxious about her future life. Then, a social worker of HK SKH Kei Oi Neighborhood Elderly Centre encouraged her to join the Brain Gym® 5 movement activity. After she had learned the movements, she practiced everyday at home. Four weeks later, she found her analytical ability has improved a lot. Thus, she started to encourage her friends to learn the relaxing, easy to learn and beneficial Brain Gym® movement..

(Voluntary Advisors: Dr Vincent Mok, Dr Adrian Wong, Dr Li Yu Wei, Ms Donna Kam)