2024 Volume 3 Pages 96-103
Purpose: We aimed to determine the physical and social characteristics of participants with decreased verbal fluency test (VFT) performance who participated in long-term care prevention projects. Furthermore, we aimed to examine the potential use of VFT as an assessment of dementia and frailty prevention in those projects.
Methods: We assessed VFT, physical frailty, grip strength, 5m walk, one-leg stand, five times stand test, and functional reach test as physical functions, and social frailty and social cohesion of social capital as social aspects in 77 participants in "Kayoi-no-ba". The participants were divided into a healthy group and a decreased VFT group and compared.
Results: No significant differences in basic information and health status were found between the healthy and the decreased VFT group. Regarding physical function, we found a significant difference in time in the one-leg stand between the decreased VFT group and the healthy group (28.6±22.1 s vs. 44.5±21.1 s, p=0.009). No significant differences were found in other physical function items. Regarding the social dimension, there was significantly less non-social frailty in the decreased VFT group compared to the healthy group (p=0.026), and significantly higher social cohesion (5.5±1.8 points vs. 4.6±1.4 points, p=0.05).
Conclusion: The decreased VFT group showed declining balance and changing social involvement, indicating that VFT could be used to assess dementia and frailty prevention.
