ACAR Brain Health Intervention Study

NCT ID: NCT04208880

Last Updated: 2019-12-23

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

UNKNOWN

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

294 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2018-01-01

Study Completion Date

2020-12-31

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

The main objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of four Total Brain Health educational programs, TBH Brain Workout (1.0 and 2.0) and TBH Memory (1.0 and 2.0), in older adults residing in independent living facilities through the Acts Center for Applied Research (ACAR). Each TBH program trains for lifestyle intervention skills across the wellness spectrum shown by research to promote cognitive performance and reduce dementia risk, using social-based training methods, and experiential learning activities. Each TBH program also has two levels of difficulty (1.0 and 2.0), which will be assessed in independent groups. Each independent living community will administer one TBH program at a time such that participants will be randomly assigned to one of three categories: 1) one of the four educational programs, 2) an active book club that will read and discuss on tips to improve one's brain health, and 3) a wait-list control group. All groups other than the wait-list control group will have 8 sessions across 2 months. The older adults who agree to be a part of the research will be asked to fill out a survey at pre-intervention, post-intervention 1 (immediate), and post-intervention 2 (2 months). We predict that the participants in the TBH Brain Workout and TBH Memory programs (all difficulty levels) will have a greater knowledge about brain health, improved subjective appraisals of their memory, improved social outcomes, lower depression, and reduced dementia risk compared with the two control groups. The investigators predict that the active book club control will differ on brain health knowledge than the wait-list control group. Due to the more cognitively challenging nature of the harder TBH programs, the investigators also predicted that the harder versions would have greater improvement in brain health knowledge and improved subjective appraisals of their memory than the easier versions.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Current evidence suggests that behavioral lifestyle modifications may improve everyday cognitive performance, thereby reducing dementia risk. The main objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of four Total Brain Health educational programs, TBH Brain Workout (1.0 and 2.0) and TBH Memory (1.0 and 2.0), in older cognitively independent adults residing in independent living facilities through the Acts Center for Applied Research (ACAR). Each TBH program trains skills across the wellness spectrum demonstrated to impact cognitive risk, use social-based training methods, and has experiential learning activities. Each of the two TBH educational programs has two levels of difficulty. The TBH Brain Workout program will consist of 8 sessions that covers topics to encourage engagement in interventions shown to impact cognitive performance, including those to enhance intellectual (e.g., how to focus attention), physical (e.g., how to eat healthy), and socio-emotional (e.g., how to stay socially engaged) well-being. The TBH Memory program will consist of 8 sessions that covers education on how memory works, what environmental factors impact memory, and memory strategies. Participants in both TBH programs will be guided through activities with a trainer, but also will have active learning activities that will include teaching others (collaborative learning), competitive teams, and whole class activities. The more challenging versions of each program (level 2.0) will also include "challenge" activities that encourage them to engage daily in an activity that requires movement, an activity that requires giving thanks, or an activity than requires mental stimulation. Participants will log which challenge activities they engaged in each week. The Book Club will be given a book to read on how to improve brain health and will discuss separate chapters across 8 sessions. These sessions will be led by the participants and no formal structure will be provided. No personal challenges will be asked of participants and no log will be required. All groups will have a sign-in sheet to record individual participation.

Each independent living community will administer one TBH program at a time such that participants will be randomly assigned to one of three categories: 1) one of the four educational programs, 2) an active "book club" that will read and discuss on tips to improve one's brain health, and 3) a wait-list control group. The older adults who agree to be a part of the research will be asked to fill out a survey at pre-intervention, post-intervention 1 (immediate), and post-intervention 2 (2 months). We predict that the participants in the TBH Brain Workout and TBH Memory programs (all difficulty levels) will have a greater knowledge about brain health, improved subjective appraisals of their memory, improved social outcomes, lower depression, and reduced dementia risk compared with the two control groups. We predict that the active book club control will differ on brain health knowledge than the wait-list control group. Due to the more cognitively challenging nature of the harder TBH programs, we also predicted that the harder versions would have greater improvement in brain health knowledge and improved subjective appraisals of their memory than the easier versions.

Power was calculated using the Bias- and Uncertainty-Corrected Sample Size (BUCCS) R package. This package was used because it allowed us to use effect sizes from a pilot study while considering bias and uncertainty in finding a similar effect size. Our pilot study used pre and post-test data from the Brain Health Fund of Knowledge Questionnaire (one of our primary outcome measures) in which we combined two active intervention groups that had earlier versions of the Total Brain Workout 1.0 and Memory 1.0 classes. The pilot data resulted in an F-value of 18.50 (effect size f = .56) from 67 total participants. Our alpha level was set to .0025 to consider a) new recommendations to set a generic alpha level to .005 and b) multiple comparisons corrections for our two primary outcome variables (i.e., Brain Health Fund of Knowledge Questionnaire and Potential for Improvement). The level of assurance and power was set to .8. Using two time points with these parameters, it was estimated that the investigators would need 49 participants per group to detect a significant effect.

Our plan is to recruit at least 49 participants from each of the six groups (four active and two control) through the through ACAR. Participation will be open for all independent living residents from January 2018 to January 2020. Participants will be aged 60 and older who have not been diagnosed with a memory disorder and are not currently engaging in other cognitive or brain training research. If the investigators are unable to reach our recruitment goals by January 2020, they will average together the 1.0 and 2.0 groups within each TBH program to achieve our desired sample size.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Aging Well

Keywords

Explore important study keywords that can help with search, categorization, and topic discovery.

Subjective Memory Intervention Brain Health Educational Program Well-being

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Participants are assigned to one of six groups in parallel for the duration of the study.
Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

TBH Brain Workout 1.0

The TBH Brain Workout program will cover education topics that encourage engagement in interventions shown to impact cognitive performance, including those to enhance intellectual (e.g., how to focus attention), physical (e.g., how to eat healthy), and socio-emotional (e.g., how to stay socially engaged) well-being. The challenge activities will be easy to master.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

TBH Brain Workout 1.0

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

TBH Brain Workout program with easy challenge activities.

TBH Brain Workout 2.0

The TBH Brain Workout program will cover education topics that encourage engagement in interventions shown to impact cognitive performance, including those to enhance intellectual (e.g., how to focus attention), physical (e.g., how to eat healthy), and socio-emotional (e.g., how to stay socially engaged) well-being. The challenge activities will be moderately difficult to master.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

TBH Brain Workout 2.0

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

TBH Brain Workout program with moderately difficult challenge activities.

TBH Memory 1.0

The TBH Memory program will cover educational topics on how memory works, what environmental factors impact memory, and memory strategies. The challenge activities will be easy to master.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

TBH Memory 1.0

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

TBH Memory program with easy challenge activities.

TBH Memory 2.0

The TBH Memory program will cover educational topics on how memory works, what environmental factors impact memory, and memory strategies. The challenge activities will be moderately difficult to master.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

TBH Memory 2.0

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

TBH Memory program with moderately difficult challenge activities

Book Club

The Book Club will be given a book to read on how to improve brain health and will discuss separate chapters across 8 sessions. These sessions will be led by the participants and no formal structure will be provided. No personal challenges will be asked of participants and no log will be required. All groups will have a sign-in sheet to record individual participation.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Brain Health Book Club

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Each week a new chapter will be read that contains new information to enhance brain health.

No Contact Wait List

The Wait List group will simply take the the surveys at each time point as the other groups.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

TBH Brain Workout 1.0

TBH Brain Workout program with easy challenge activities.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Brain Health Book Club

Each week a new chapter will be read that contains new information to enhance brain health.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

TBH Brain Workout 2.0

TBH Brain Workout program with moderately difficult challenge activities.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

TBH Memory 1.0

TBH Memory program with easy challenge activities.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

TBH Memory 2.0

TBH Memory program with moderately difficult challenge activities

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

* Aged 60 and older

Exclusion Criteria

* Diagnosed with a memory disorder
* Currently engaging in other cognitive or brain training research
Minimum Eligible Age

60 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.

Ian M. McDonough

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

The University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

United States

Central Contacts

Reach out to these primary contacts for questions about participation or study logistics.

Ian M McDonough, PhD

Role: CONTACT

Phone: 205-737-3442

Email: [email protected]

Carpantato Myles, MSM, CIM, CIP

Role: CONTACT

Phone: 205-348-5746

Email: [email protected]

Facility Contacts

Find local site contact details for specific facilities participating in the trial.

Ian M McDonough, PhD

Role: primary

References

Explore related publications, articles, or registry entries linked to this study.

Cornwell EY, Waite LJ. Social disconnectedness, perceived isolation, and health among older adults. J Health Soc Behav. 2009 Mar;50(1):31-48. doi: 10.1177/002214650905000103.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 19413133 (View on PubMed)

Deckers K, van Boxtel MP, Schiepers OJ, de Vugt M, Munoz Sanchez JL, Anstey KJ, Brayne C, Dartigues JF, Engedal K, Kivipelto M, Ritchie K, Starr JM, Yaffe K, Irving K, Verhey FR, Kohler S. Target risk factors for dementia prevention: a systematic review and Delphi consensus study on the evidence from observational studies. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2015 Mar;30(3):234-46. doi: 10.1002/gps.4245. Epub 2014 Dec 12.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 25504093 (View on PubMed)

Hughes ME, Waite LJ, Hawkley LC, Cacioppo JT. A Short Scale for Measuring Loneliness in Large Surveys: Results From Two Population-Based Studies. Res Aging. 2004;26(6):655-672. doi: 10.1177/0164027504268574.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 18504506 (View on PubMed)

Lachman, M. E., Bandura, M., Weaver, S. L., & Elliott, E. (1995). Assessing memory control beliefs: The memory controllability inventory. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 2(1), 67-84.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Orgeta V, Mukadam N, Sommerlad A, Livingston G. The Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention, Intervention, and Care: a call for action. Ir J Psychol Med. 2019 Jun;36(2):85-88. doi: 10.1017/ipm.2018.4.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 31187723 (View on PubMed)

Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied psychological measurement, 1(3), 385-401.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Rosenberg A, Ngandu T, Rusanen M, Antikainen R, Backman L, Havulinna S, Hanninen T, Laatikainen T, Lehtisalo J, Levalahti E, Lindstrom J, Paajanen T, Peltonen M, Soininen H, Stigsdotter-Neely A, Strandberg T, Tuomilehto J, Solomon A, Kivipelto M. Multidomain lifestyle intervention benefits a large elderly population at risk for cognitive decline and dementia regardless of baseline characteristics: The FINGER trial. Alzheimers Dement. 2018 Mar;14(3):263-270. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2017.09.006. Epub 2017 Oct 19.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 29055814 (View on PubMed)

Troyer AK, Rich JB. Psychometric properties of a new metamemory questionnaire for older adults. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2002 Jan;57(1):P19-27. doi: 10.1093/geronb/57.1.p19.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 11773220 (View on PubMed)

Risk Reduction of Cognitive Decline and Dementia: WHO Guidelines. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019. Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542796/

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 31219687 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

ACARTBH

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id