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Lundbeck Institute

Mahjong "a viable treatment option" for dementia

Researchers in Hong Kong who examined the effect of mahjong on the
cognitive functioning of elderly individuals with dementia say it is a
viable treatment option requiring no professional supervision and
entailing minimal or no cost to an institution.
Earlier research has suggested that increased participation in cognitive
activities is associated with a lower risk of development of dementia.
One recent study of older people in China found that those who regularly
engaged in mentally stimulating activities such as playing board games
and reading had a reduced risk of cognitive impairment, while their
peers who spent more time watching television had an increased risk.

In a new exploratory study, researchers from the Department of Applied
Social Studies at the City University of Hong Kong set out to explore
the effect of mahjong on the cognitive functioning of 62 people with
mild to moderate dementia. Mahjong is a traditional Chinese board game
that involves cognitive domains such as attention, memory, calculation
and planning.

Mean age of the participants was 83.9 and all had an initial Mini-Mental
State Examination (MMSE) score of 24 or lower. The participants were
able to play mahjong, but had not played for the past six months. They
were randomly assigned to play either twice (n = 33) or four times (n =
29) a week over a 16-week duration. Digit forward span, digit forward
sequence, verbal memory and MMSE score were measured at baseline,
post-test and at one-month follow-up.

The results showed that, regardless of frequency of playing, mahjong
produced consistent gains across all cognitive performance measures. It
had large effect sizes on digit forward memory (1.0-1.4 for both span
and sequence), moderate-to-large effect sizes on verbal memory
(0.5-0.9), and a moderate effect size on MMSE (around 0.6). Moreover,
said the investigators, the effects lasted after mahjong had been
withdrawn for a month, "suggesting that constant practice is not
necessary to achieve therapeutic effect once an initial threshold is
attained".

The team concluded that mahjong is a viable treatment option for
dementia. They added, "Because mahjong therapy basically does not
require professional supervision and can be implemented as widely as
space allows at a given time, the potential benefits of integrating
mahjong into the daily routines of an institution are enormous vis-à-vis
minimal, if any, cost to the institution."
Reference
Cheng ST, Chan AC and Yu EC, International Journal of Geriatric
Psychiatry, published online 15/06/06
(c)2006 Global News Services Ltd