Author(s)

Seigo Koura^1,2, Chieko Nishikawa², Tomohiro Inagaki², Akiko Ikeda^1,3, Takeshi Oshikawa¹, Shinya Matsutani¹, Risa Semba¹, Yusuke Kumura⁴, Kentaro Higashi²

¹Faculty of Rehabilitation, Nishikyusyu University, Kanzaki City, Japan.
²Social Welfare Corporation Kanjikai, Miyakonojyo City, Japan.
³Sophia Phyto-Therapy College, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴Department of Rehabilitation Center, St. Mary’s Hospital, Kurume City, Japan.

Background: Previous studies have shown that Hand Care Treatment, a form of passive horticultural therapy, is effective in preventing dementia and MCI and reducing the rate of progression. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, various activity restrictions were implemented in Japan from March 2020, and the number of elderly people without care and rehabilitation will the number of elderly people without care and rehabilitation has been increasing. Purpose: Progression of cognitive, physical, and mental disability was examined for long-term horticultural therapy study subjects by level of care required. Methods: One subject who had been diagnosed with dementia and was residing in an elderly care facility and consented to a long-term study was selected. In addition to assessments using various evaluation forms, data recorded from time to time, including changes in care plans, were analyzed using text mining methods. Results: This subject tended to progress slowly from 1 to 2 care needs, but progressed from 3 to 5 care needs over a 2-year period. The results of the assessment chart test showed that cognitive impairment and IADL decreased with each increase in the level of care required, but DBD remained the same at the time of admission, even at 5 years of care required. A comparison of HCT and aroma intervention with and without aroma intervention during the nursing care level 1 showed that the improvement in physical, mental, and cognitive function was expected to be higher at the time of intervention. Text-mining inspections have revealed that during the period of nursing care level 1 - 5, active horticultural therapy techniques, and passive horticultural therapy techniques such as HCT and brain rejuvenation aromatherapy were found to betweenness centrality with each other. Conclusion: From the results of mean score of DBD, although the nursing care level has progressed from 1 to a maximum of 5, it can be concluded that the burden of care has not become heavier. There was no tendency for the progression of cognitive impairment in this subject to be faster than in the general AD population, despite the influences of Covid-19. The results indicated that caregiving techniques and active and passive horticultural therapy techniques in Japanese welfare facilities for the elderly are expected to be effective in preventing the progression of cognitive impairment.

Dementia, MCI, Hand Care Treatment, Prevention, Covid-19, KH Coder3

Koura, S. , Nishikawa, C. , Inagaki, T. , Ikeda, A. , Oshikawa, T. , Matsutani, S. , Semba, R. , Kumura, Y. and Higashi, K. (2023) Long-Term Active and Passive Horticultural Therapy Intervention for Elderly Patients with Moderate Dementia and AI Analysis of Medical Records and Care Documents. Open Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 11, 17-33. doi: 10.4236/ojtr.2023.111002.