Nurses could implement interventions to focus on many of the patient's influencing factors, so that to improve their mental and physical health, which may slow the disease process and further improve the patient's quality of life. In addition, Chinese government could learn some experience from Japanese government, such as perfect the system of nursing insurance for elderly and introduce professional geriatric nursing talents to provide better service for the elderly.

To date, no elder care facilities in Japan have formally introduced the Eden Alternative philosophy of care. The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to identify the perceptions of care workers and nurses regarding the lives of the older adults in care facilities to consider the prospects for introducing the Eden Alternative to Japan. The participants included 139 care workers and 41 nurses who responded to a survey questionnaire based on Eden Alternative principles developed by the researchers for this study. More than half of the participants indicated that they sometimes thought the older adults experienced feelings of helplessness, loneliness, and boredom and hoped for changes in the manner of care to improve the lives of residents. Participants were also in favor of the residents having plants and visits from children, but opinions about having animals on site were split. The fact that the survey respondents noticed the problems indicated by the Eden Alternative suggests there is great potential for introducing the Eden Alternative to Japan.

Introduction: Alzheimer's dementia (AD) is the most dominant (more than 60%) in the whole dementia and the incidence of AD for people at age 65 years or older becomes twice with an increase in age by 5 years, so the development of countermeasures against it is an urgent issue. For improving cognitive functions, the effectiveness of dual-task (a task for which two different things are performed at the same time) and that of n-back task (a task for which delayed recall of a thing performed at n times ago is carried out) have been verified. In addition, we have also verified that distress has negative effects on cognitive functions. Hence, we started dual-task-and n-back task-incorporated intervention geared toward elderly people living in Kashihara-city. In this method, music therapy was adopted for the distress reduction and the eustress enhancement. The purposes of this study are to verify the preventive effect against dementia by the dual-task-and n-back task-incorporated music therapy and to measure the effect of music therapy on the distress reduction. In this study, the intervention group and the control group were compared during the intervention for three months. Methods:A screening test for mild cognitive impairment was carried out with Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA test). Stress check was performed by collecting sublingual saliva and measuring α-amylase. Analysis was conducted with t-test corresponding to the comparison between the intervention group and the control group. Results:The intervention group showed significant improvement of cognitive functions and a decrease in distress, compared to the control group. Conclusion:The dual-task-and n-back task-incorporated music therapy improved cognitive functions and reduced distress. To verify this repeatedly to refine the technique and to accumulate effective programs are our future tasks.

Alzheimer's dementia (AD) is the most common dementia, Background accounting for more than 60% of all dementia cases. For adults aged >65 years, the incidence rate doubles for every 5 years of increased age; therefore, preserving cognitive function is a pressing issue. Thus, our team screens for AD in older adults with mild cognitive impairment, at 11 public halls in Kashihara City, Japan, and offers follow-up to those with cognitive difficulties. The purpose of this research was to measure the effects of two interventions, a dual-task (requiring the participant to perform two tasks at the same time) and an n-back task (test of memory retention, requiring the participant to identify the item occupying the nth-back position in a sequence of items). A comparison group performed a single learning task in place of the dual-task. Moreover, the majority of non-drug therapies for the maintenance of cognitive function help promote a positive mood, activating reward systems in the brain and motivating the individual to continue the task. Therefore, the correlation between cognitive function, and positive and negative mood was investigated.: Dual and n-back task (n = 304) and single-task (n = 78) groups were Methods compared in a 6-month intervention. Salivary α-amylase concentration was measured, which reflects positive and negative mood, and correlations with cognitive function were analyzed.: Cognitive function improved in both the dual-task and the single-task Results groups, and many cognitive domains had improved in the dual-task group. A correlation between salivary α-amylase and cognitive function was found, indicating that a greater positive mood was associated with greater cognitive function.: The results of this research show that functional decline can be Conclusion improved by a cognitive intervention. Positive mood and cognitive function were correlated, suggesting that encouraging comfort in the participant can increase the effectiveness of the intervention.

Introduction: We conducted preventive interventions for aging-associated cognitive decline (AACD), and compared cognitive ability before and after the intervention. Furthermore, an anteroposterior comparison of health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) and mood states was carried out between the intervention and control groups. We also determined the correlation between cognitive ability, HR-QOL, and mood state. Materials and methods:We recruited 100 elderly people by distributing public relations magazines and leaflets. For the first three months, the participants attended the seminar as a control period. In the subsequent three months, the intervention using the delayed playback task and rhythmic activities was carried out. The tool used to test cognitive ability was the Five Cognitive Functions (Five Cog), which was developed as a screening test of AACD. The tool used for measurement of HR-QOL was the WHO Quality of Life 26, while the Profile of Mood States-Brief form was used for measurement of mood states. Analysis was conducted with t-test corresponding to the comparison between the intervention group and the control group. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used for the relationship among each of test items. Result:The results of the Five Cog revealed that 60.4% had no cognitive impairments, 37.7% showed suspected AACD, and 1.9% showed suspected dementia. In the pre-post comparison of cognitive abilities, the total score significantly improved (p < 0.05). HR-QOL also improved overall and in terms of physical, psychological (p < 0.01), and social QOL (p < 0.05). For mood states, tension-anxiety, depression-dejection, fatigue-inertia, and confusion-bewilderment all showed reduced scores at post-test, while vigor-activity improved (p < 0.01). There were positive correlations between HR-QOL and cognitive ability in terms of the attention domain of cognitive ability and psychological QOL, and the reasoning domain and social QOL (p < 0.05). There were negative correlations between mood states and cognitive ability-between the reasoning domain of cognitive ability and tension-anxiety, and between the verbal fluency domain confusion-bewilderment (p < 0.05). Conclusion:Cognitive ability was positively related to psychological and social QOL, and negatively related to tension-anxiety, depression-dejection, and confusionbewilderment. Accordingly, a key aspect of interventions for AACD should be promotion of psychological stability and social interaction. This would apply to all such interventions that relate to the interventions for AACD.