The impact of patient and partner personality traits on learning success for a cognitive rehabilitation intervention for patients with MCI

ABSTRACT

The Memory Support System (MSS) is the memory compensation tool used in the HABIT Healthy Action to Benefit Independence and Thinking^® Program. People diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (pwMCI; n = 153) participated in this cognitive rehabilitative programme with a partner. We first aimed to determine if prior research on the positive impact of higher baseline cognitive status on successful MSS learning would be replicated in a new sample. We further evaluated the impact of the pwMCI’s and partner’s personality traits, as measured by the Ten Item Personality Inventory, on successful learning. Better global cognitive status was again shown to increase the odds for MSS learning success. In terms of personality, the highest odds of learning success occurred when the pwMCI was high in Openness to Experience (OR = 5.43), followed by high partner Openness (OR = 2.53) or high Openness in both the pwMCI and partner (OR = 2.31). In sum, when the pwMCI possessed both better cognitive status and openness to new experience they were better able to master a cognitive rehabilitation tool for MCI.