Investigation of the effect of green walking and intelligence games on the cognitive skills of individuals between the ages of 50-70 survived COVİD-19 disease

The randomized controlled study to examine the effects of green walking and intelligence games on the cognitive skills of individuals aged 50-70 years who had COVID-19 on an outpatient basis were completed with 40 individuals, 20 of which were in the green walking and intelligence game group and 20 were in the control group. The data were collected in Erzincan Tercan State Hospital between January-May 2022, "Patient Information Form," "Montreal Cognitive Assessment Implementation Guideline," "Brain Games (Brain Games-Memory Thinking and Brain Exercise) Information Leaflet," "Hiking Information Brochure," and "Experimental Group Follow-up Form" by the "Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale" applied as a pre-test. As an initiative, the green walking and intelligence game group was given a 30-minute nature walk three days a week for a month and a 15-minute intelligence game practice every day. Then, the "Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale" was applied as a post-test. Categorical variables as numbers and percentages; continuous variables were given as mean, standard deviation, median (interquartile range (25th-75th percentiles), and smallemost significan trgest values.Data were evaluated with Chi-square, Paired Sample t-test and Independent Sample t-test,, One-Way ANOVA and Fisher's Exact Chi-square tests. It was determined that the cognitive skills and cognitive dimensions of "attention, concentration, memory, language and orientation" of the individuals in the green walking and intelligence game group increased significantly compared to the control group individuals. In addition, cognitive skills and cognitive dimensions of "attention, concentration, memory, language and orientation" of individuals in the green walking and intelligence game group; income perception level was found to affect the cognitive dimension of "memory" significantly (p<0.05). As a result, it was determined that green walking and intelligence game application increased the cognitive skills of individuals between the ages of 50-70 who had COVID-19.