Introduction:

Language and cognitive skills change in the elderly, affecting their quality of life. Cognitive stimulation programs aim at strengthening these skills and mitigating the consequences.

Objective:

To present the methodology and results of one of the cohorts of the program for the promotion of communicative, linguistic and cognitive skills Mentes en Acción (Minds in Action), aimed at older adults and developed in an interdisciplinary way by the Teaching Assistance Program of the Human Communication Center of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Materials and methods:

The results of 92 participants before and after the eight weeks contemplated by the program were analyzed and compared. Different cognitive and language skills were evaluated, as well as the impact on quality of life.

Results:

Significant improvements were evident in most of the domains assessed (communication, attention, memory, planning and reasoning skills) and in some of the variables related to quality of life such as pain, general health, emotional role, social function and mental health.

Conclusions:

This study is a first step in to generate evidence in favor of the Mentes en Acción (Minds in Action) program; however, the limitations and perspectives of the program are also discussed.

        · resumo em Espanhol     · texto em Espanhol     · Espanhol ( pdf )