The ability of the intervention group to perform the assigned task (make rice balls) also showed significant improvement, with the work of 13 out of the 15 patients in the group evaluated as either much improved or somewhat improved. The remaining two patients in the group showed no change (Table 4). Fig. 1 shows typical onigiri and ohagi rice balls made by one of the patients in the intervention group during the first and sixth sessions. Improvement in the ability to perform the tasks was exhibited across the board for all patients with mild to severe dementia regardless of degree of cognitive impairment: two out of two patients with MMSE scores 0e9 improved (100%), 11 out of 13 patients with scores 10e19 improved (84.6%), and two out of two patients with scores 20e23 improved (100%). We found no significant correlation between the degree of improvement in forming the rice balls and degree of de- mentia (MMSE score) (Spearman’s rank correlation test showed, r Z e.07, p Z .82).
not been diagnosed with any other mental disorders. Those who were emotionally unstable or unable to do the experimental tasks due to physical impairment were excluded.