正常與輕度認知功能障礙老人在工作記憶表現之差異性分析研究

The purpose of this study was to compare the difference in the performance of working memory among the healthy elders and mild cognitive impairment. The research method adopted a cross-sectional study design and comparative analysis. The participants were elderly people in the community or residential care home. The study was conducted using structured questionnaires, including demographic variables, cognitive functions, and Digit Span (DS) task. The participants were grouped by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). The Digit Span (DS) task identified differences in the performance of working memory between the two groups. Statistical data were analyzed with independent sample t-test, chi-square test, and General Linear Model (GLM). A total of 148 participants (74 healthy elders and 74 mild cognitive impairment) were included in this study. The average age was 78.76 ± 7.61years. After adjusting for age, marital status, and education level of study, the performance of elderly people with mild cognitive impairment in working memory (total score, forward, and backward) was significantly worse than that of normal elders (p＜ .01) in our study. Therefore, the Digit Span task could be used as a simple assessment tool to assess the clinical evaluation of elderly people with normal and mild cognitive impairment.