Bingo Benefits You Never Realized

@Greg Ceo
Bingo! Who knew the benefits?
Researchers have found that high-contrast, large bingo cards boost thinking and playing skills for people with cognitive difficulties and visual perception problems produced by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Their findings published in the journal Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition show that as people age, they begin to lose sensitivity to perceive contrasts. It is exacerbated in people with dementia.
And while using bingo to socially engage is pretty well known in long term care settings, less is known about how visual perception problems affect the way people think and play.

Study participants played bingo on computer-generated cards that were manipulated for brightness, size and contrast so the researchers could compare the performance among the different age and health groups.

Those with mild dementia could perform at levels of their healthy peers. Little change was reported for people with more severe dementia.

Researchers have found that boosting contrast in the living environment and also at the table enables people with dementia — who have lost the ability to distinguish between similar-contrast objects — to move safely around their homes and improve their eating.

For example, putting a black sofa in a white room would improve the contrast of the room and make it easier for individuals to move about.åÊ
They also found that individuals with dementia actually eat more if they use a white plate and tableware on a dark tablecloth or are served food that contrasts the color of the plate.

Researchers say these interventions allow people with dementia and others with visual perception deficits to live independently longer, perform daily tasks and enjoy life and having such pleasures as reading a book.

And while there may be contrasting views on the benefits of bingo, there is no doubt that contrast for the visually impaired with dementia is a good thing.