Effect of Brain Training on Eye-Hand Coordination Activities in Elderly Patients for Stress and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of brain training for improving eye-hand coordination activities of elderly patients’ type 2 diabetic mellitus with stress.

Design: Experimental study.

Setting: The stress and type 2 diabetes mellitus elderly patient health board service plan 4 service areas at Tharuea Hospital.

Participants: Thirty- fourth elderly people (men 16, women 18) aged between 60- 86. The participants were divided into two groups: 17 participants in the experimental group (brain training of eye-hand coordination activities), another 17 participants in the control group (medical treatment during the study to control blood sugar and risky behavior), and 3 sessions of 40 minutes each of brain training (each week) (24 sessions) for 8 weeks.

Main outcome measurements: The instruments used in this study measured the cortisol level and FBS, OHQ, WHOQOL, and SPST- 20. T-test independent between group and t-test dependent within group were used to analyze the data.

Results: The elderly patients’ stress and type 2 diabetes mellitus was stress, QOL, happiness and cortisol level of the experimental group and control group were significantly different and after the experimental were significantly different, and found that, FBS the experimental group before and after were significantly different.

Conclusions: The elderly patients’ stress and type 2 diabetes mellitus regularly practiced brain training of eye-hand coordination activities showed better QOL, happiness and decreased of stress, cortisol level and FBS. Hand box activity (HBA) as a coordination exercise may reduce the risk function of the adrenal glands (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and maintain the secretion of cortisol hormone control. Keywords Brain training; Eye-hand coordination activities; Stress; Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus