Introduction: Physical and cognitive function declines with age. Current studies show that it is known that increased muscle strength and cognitive training can maintain or improve the physical ability of elderly people and improve daily life functions.  Although the optimal type of training for years of beneficial long-term training results is unclear, occupational therapist interventions can provide multi-faceted activities with strength and cognitive training. This study aimed to explore the clinical significance of the combination of cognitive and physical activity in the overall daily life function of patients with mild dementia.

Methods: The subjects with mild dementia diagnosed by physicians were included. The group teaching course was designed and applied at three community bases to collect the dementia residents. Multi-faceted activities led by occupational therapists, including physical fitness, daily life, and cognitive training activities, two hours each time, once a week, a total of 12 times for a round. Evaluations were performed before and after the intervention round. Evaluation tools included the MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination), FIM (Functional Independence Measure), Canadian Occupational Performance Measurement (COPM), Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS), and hand dynamometer. Comparison before and after intervention were analyzed by SPSS software.

Results: More than thirty dementia subjects were recruited for this study. Their general health and cognition as well as muscle endurance were found to improve through the occupational therapy intervention.

Conclusion: This study provide the evidence that multi-faceted activity can empower the cognitive and physical performance for the community elders with mild dementia. The result supported the viewpoint of foreign literatures. They argued that to combine cognitive and physical exercise interventions have potential to elicit cognitive benefits in older adults with mild dementia. For future study, the effectiveness of intervention activities with various length of time, or intervention frequency, or the difficulty of cognitive challenge still need to be investigated.