Affiliations: [a]
Geriatrics and Gerontology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Egypt
| [b]
Ain Shams Ageing Research Center, Ain Shams Cognitive Training Lab, Cairo, Egypt
| [c] Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland & University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| [d]
School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
| [e]
Network Aging Research, Heidelberg University, Germany
| [f]
Greek Association of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders, Thessaloniki, Greece
| [g]
The University of Sheffield International Faculty, City College, Thessaloniki, Greece
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Dr. Marianna Tsatali, Greek Association of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders, K. Karamanli 164, 54248 Thessaloniki, Greece. Tel.: +30 2310 351 451; Fax: +30 2310 351456; E-mail: mtsatali@yahoo.gr.
Abstract: Background:With greying of nations, dementia becomes a public health priority. The rising dementia prevalence escalates both health care expenses and burden, placing the entire healthcare system and caregivers under huge stress. Cognition-oriented interventions have been shown to enhance the overall cognitive performance among healthy and cognitively impaired older adults. Objective:This article is assumed to be a steppingstone for the introduction and establishment of cognition- oriented interventions in Egypt. In addition, it aims to offer provisional guidance for health care providers in Arab speaking countries in a stepwise approach in order to establish cognition-oriented intervention services and help them to evaluate and monitor their efficacy. Methods:Aconsortium of Egyptian and Greek specialists developed a protocol for the operations of the Ain Shams Cognitive Training Lab and the provision of cognition-oriented interventions. This protocol is based on a previous successful protocol that has been implemented in Greece for more than 10 years and is co-designed to fit the needs of older adults in Arabic speaking countries. Results:The types of services offered, their objectives, recruitment of participants, delivery of interventions, measurement of outcomes and privacy policy are all outlined in the policy. Conclusion:Establishing the appropriate framework in which cognitive training strategies can be adapted and implemented in Arabic population, constitutes an inevitable achievement in healthy ageing and can be also assumed as a dementia prevention strategy. Moreover, setting up the first cognitive laboratory in Egypt older adults, can be a model of good practice across the Arabic countries.
