ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1569406
This article is part of the Research TopicAging: Challenges and Opportunities for Inclusion and Active Participation - Volume IIView all articles
Are board games useful for people with dementia? A preliminary study for a nonpharmacological intervention
Provisionally accepted
- University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy
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Introduction. The diagnosis of dementia is a serious public health problem and a challenge for the entire scientific community. Among the potential lines of intervention, board games can be considered a nonpharmacological strategy. Thus, the present study aimed to explore the potential of board games as a group intervention to support cognitive stimulation and psychological well-being in people with dementia.Method: Participants were 36 older people with diagnosis of dementia (Mage = 86.13; SD = 6.94; MMMSE= 18.82, SD = 2.96). They performed a verbal working memory, verbal fluency and a denomination task at the beginning of the project (T1), played with board games with their facilities' professionals over a month (S1) and, at the end, they did a parallel form of the initial cognitive tasks (T2). Then, they played with their games' conductors for a further two months (S2) and, at the end of this period (T3), they performed the initial cognitive tasks. The research team observed participants' level of well-being during S1 and facilities' professionals completed a questionnaire at T1, T2 and T3 to provide information about participants' symptoms of depression (T1 and T3) and their point of view on board game activity (T2 and T3).The results showed that cognitive functions do not increase during time, F (2, 32) = 2.54, p=.095, η 2 =.145, despite a significant change occurred after the first month (p = .029). It is specifically the verbal fluency to improve from T1 to T2 (p = .042). In addition, results indicated that the level of wellbeing observed during board game activities was higher than the level of discomfort, F (1, 35) = 133.69, p >.001, η 2 =.876.' responses to open-ended questions about cognitive functioning and psychological well-being confirmed the same results. No changes on depression symptoms were found, F (3,19) = 2.39, p = .105, η 2 =.297.The results of this study suggest that board games can be explored further as a nonpharmacological intervention for groups of older people diagnosed with dementia, as favourable outcomes were observed in terms of cognition and well-being. Theoretical implications, research directions and professional perspectives were also discussed.
Keywords: cognitive functioning, Board games, Well-being, psycho-social intervention, Nonpharmacological intervention, Dementia
Received: 31 Jan 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guardabassi, MARANESI, Di Massimo, Manoni, Cirilli and Nicolini. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Veronica Guardabassi, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy
Paola Nicolini, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy
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