Negotiating the complex paths of health care is difficult enough under the best circumstances, but it becomes progressively more confusing as we age and our memories become less reliable. Vital daily tasks such as taking required medicine can be simply forgotten. The National Institute on Aging estimates that "medical non-compliance" is around 60 percent.
Now, thanks to the research efforts of LAS psychology professor Denise Park, a three-minute technique can help the elderly attain better memories and better health.
Park directs the Center on Aging and Cognition: Health, Education, and Training (CACHET) at U of I's Beckman Institute. Along with Linda Liu from the University of Michigan, Park recently completed an investigation of the link between diminished cognitive skills and the variety of medical decisions older adults make. Using a test group of 31 people over the age of 60 divided into three groups, Park asked participants to test their blood sugar levels a few times a day for three weeks. One group talked over the reasons for daily testing; the second group repeated the instructions for testing; and the third group spent three minutes imagining the act of using the glucose monitor.
The group that utilized imagination tested their blood at a 50 percent higher rate than the other two groups.
In a summary of the project, Park writes, "We believe that the positive effects of implementation plans on prospective memory for blood glucose testing reported here will transfer to other medical behaviors and may facilitate older adults' performance of other important tasks. We plan to implement studies in the next year of the proposal that will explore how this technique can be used to strengthen memory for other types of health behaviors."
The technique, known as "implementation imagination," is also handy for younger individuals to aid in a variety of tasks from breast exams to dieting to the cessation of smoking.
