Maintaining Autonomy as we Age. Strategy Training for Age-related Executive Dysfunction.

NCT ID: NCT01163279

Last Updated: 2017-12-18

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 19 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2010-08-31
• Study Completion Date: 2011-10-31

Brief Summary

Healthy older adults with self-reported cognitive difficulties who receive strategy training will demonstrate greater performance benefits on measures of real-world activities, relative to those receiving a control intervention, immediately post treatment and at follow-up.

Conditions

Aging

Keywords

Age-related changes

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: OTHER
• Blinding Strategy: DOUBLE

Study Groups

Cognitive Training

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Real world strategy approach

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The key features of the protocol are: i. Participants are actively engaged in selecting their treatment goals. The research clinician will work with the participants to identify five specific, measurable real-world goals using a standardized semi-structured interview, the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure. Three of these will be training goals, two will not be trained but evaluated post-intervention for evidence of generalization and transfer to non-trained tasks; ii. A global problem solving approach is used (Goal- Plan- Do- Check). Participants are guided by the trainer to apply this strategy to their goals.

Psychosocial Education

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Psychosocial Education

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The active comparator uses an information-based format and is designed to engage participants without providing any specific training techniques or strategies. During weekly sessions, participants will receive factual information on brain structure and function, age-related cognitive changes, and general brain health issues and will spend time doing non-specific cognitive exercises including crossword and Sudoku puzzles. Homework will consist of reading assignments related to the session topics.

Interventions

Real world strategy approach

The key features of the protocol are: i. Participants are actively engaged in selecting their treatment goals. The research clinician will work with the participants to identify five specific, measurable real-world goals using a standardized semi-structured interview, the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure. Three of these will be training goals, two will not be trained but evaluated post-intervention for evidence of generalization and transfer to non-trained tasks; ii. A global problem solving approach is used (Goal- Plan- Do- Check). Participants are guided by the trainer to apply this strategy to their goals.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Psychosocial Education

The active comparator uses an information-based format and is designed to engage participants without providing any specific training techniques or strategies. During weekly sessions, participants will receive factual information on brain structure and function, age-related cognitive changes, and general brain health issues and will spend time doing non-specific cognitive exercises including crossword and Sudoku puzzles. Homework will consist of reading assignments related to the session topics.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

Adopted Cognitive Orientation to Occupational Performance (CO-OP)

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• All participants must score within 1.5 standard deviation (SD) of age and education-corrected normative data for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and on a battery of neuropsychological tests of attention, memory and executive function (which will insure that participants are unlikely to meet the criteria for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)).
• No clinically relevant depression (scores ≤22) on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)
• Fluent in written and spoken English
• Self-reported complains about cognitive function

Exclusion Criteria

• Recent bereavement (within last 6 months)
• History of neurological disease
• Psychiatric illness requiring hospitalization and/or history or current substance abuse

• Minimum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 90 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Baycrest

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Dr. Deirdre Dawson

Senior Scientist

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Deirdre Dawson, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest

Locations

Baycrest

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Countries

Canada

Other Identifiers

REB1021

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id