Abstract: Objective: To explore factors influencing cognitive training participation among patients with mild cognitive impairment, and to provide practical evidence for constructing effective training implementation strategies. Methods: Purposeful sampling was used to select 17 patients with mild cognitive impairment from September 2024 to February 2025. These individuals were recruited from the cognitive center, and cognitive training nursing clinic of a tertiary grade A hospital in Nanjing, as well as through community screening. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and content analysis was used based on a multi-theory model. Results: Three themes (participation intention, behavioral initiation, and behavioral maintenance) and ten subthemes (perception of disease risk, perceived benefits of training, behavioral self-efficacy, barriers to access and utilization of resources, trade-offs between economic costs and value, positive emotional transformation, self-regulation in behavioral practice, social environmental support, time preference, and practical limitations caused by frailty and comorbidities) were extracted. Conclusion: The participation of patients with mild cognitive impairment in cognitive training is affected by a complex interplay of multiple factors. Medical staff should optimize implementation strategies based on these influencing factors to help transform cognitive training from effective to practical implementation.

Key words: mild cognitive impairment; cognitive training; multi-theory model; influencing factor; qualitative study