No abstract

Background: Although recent studies have shown that multimodal intervention has positive effects on cognition, little is known about how frequent intervention should be held to keep their cognition for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the participation rate in a multimodal day-care program and longitudinal cognitive outcome in MCI patients. Methods: Sixty-three patients with MCI (28 female), aged 54-83 years (70.7 6 6.6 years) participated in this study. They attended a multimodal program (exercise, art therapy, music therapy, cognitive training) at the day-care center once a week. The mini mental state examination (MMSE) was conducted at the baseline as well as 6-, 12-, 18-, 24-, and 30-month follow-ups. We divided them into two groups by varying the attendance rate of over 40% and under, 50%, 60%, 70%, respectively. We employed a mixed model ANOVA to analyze data. Results: There were significant interaction effects of the attendance rate and time course of MMSE when the group was divided by attendance rate of 50% and 60%. The effect of the attendance on the MMSE score was also significant after adjusting the age and sex in 50 % and 60 % (P < 0.01). When divided by the attendance rate of 40 % or 70 %, the effect of the attendance rate on MMSE score was not significant (P ¼ 0.