Table 2. Activities conducted in the CST-IT and active control groups.
| • Pre-test session 1: Mini-Mental State Examination, Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive subscale, Cornell scale, Disability Assessment for Dementia, Backward digit span task. • Pre-test session 2: Neuropsychiatric Inventory, Narrative language test, Quality of Life - Alzheimer's Disease scale | ||
| CST-IT group Main themes/activities | Active control group Main themes/activities | |
| 1 | Physical games | Reading stories/newspapers, discussion |
| 2 | Sounds | Creative activities: painting, coloring, decorating, cooking. |
| 3 | My life | Reading stories/newspapers, discussion |
| 4 | Food | Creative activities: painting, coloring, decorating, cooking. |
| 5 | Current affairs | Reading stories/newspapers, discussion |
| 6 | Faces and places | Creative activities: painting, coloring, decorating, cooking. |
| 7 | Word associations | Reading stories/newspapers, discussion |
| 8 | Being creative | Creative activities: painting, coloring, decorating, cooking. |
| 9 | Categorizing objects | Reading stories/newspapers, discussion |
| 10 | Orientation | Creative activities: painting, coloring, decorating, cooking. |
| 11 | Using money | Reading stories/newspapers, discussion |
| 12 | Number games | Creative activities: painting, coloring, decorating, cooking. |
| 13 | Word games | Reading stories/newspapers, discussion |
| 14 | Team games | Creative activities: painting, coloring, decorating, cooking. |
| • Post-test session 1: Mini-Mental State Examination, Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive subscale, Cornell scale, Disability Assessment for Dementia, Backward digit span task. • Post-test session 2: Neuropsychiatric Inventory, Narrative language test, Quality of Life - Alzheimer's Disease scale. | ||
CST-IT: Cognitive stimulation therapy – Italian adaptation in which some of the original materials that did not fit with the Italian culture were changed, e.g. popular English songs were replaced with popular Italian songs, traditional English food with traditional Italian food, etc., without changing the structure and activities of the original program.