Reversion to normal cognition and its correlates among the community-dwelling elderly with mild cognitive impairment: The longitudinal cohort study

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to identify the rate of reversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to normal cognition (NC) among the community-dwelling elderly and to determine if there were differences in cognitive function, leisure activities, and exercises between the group with MCI-maintained and the group with reversion to NC. Methods: This study utilized a longitudinal descriptive comparative design. A total of 346 subjects over age 65 was recruited from public health center at baseline. Finally 152 elderly were enrolled at 1 year follow-up. Data were collected through MoCA-K, K-MMSE, KDSQ-C5 and questionnaires on leisure activities and exercises. Data were analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 using descriptive statistics, x² test, and t-test. Results: The rate of reversion from MCI to NC among the subjects was 44.1%. At baseline, the group with MCI-maintained had lower cognitive function than the group with reversion to NC. At 1 year follow-up, the group with reversion to NC had higher subjective cognitive function than the group with MCI-maintained. Regarding leisure activities, there were differences between the groups at baseline and 1 year follow-up. Conclusion: It is suggested that age, education year, subjective cognitive function, and leisure activities should be considered at planning a nursing intervention for MCI.