Activities for Cognitive Enhancement of Seniors (ACE-Seniors)

Tai Chi and Guided Autobiography for Remediation of Age-related Cognitive Decline

Cognitive aging and cognitive decline are important public health concerns in an aging US population. The investigators will conduct a randomized controlled trail among healthy older adults to assess effects of several innovative activities on remediation of age-related cognitive decline.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Aging
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Tai Chi; Behavioral: Guided autobiography; Behavioral: Qigong; Behavioral: Successful aging; Behavioral: Combination; Behavioral: Comparison

Detailed Description

ACE-Seniors is designed as a single-site trial of four randomly assigned interventions, Tai Chi exercise, autobiographical writing, both Tai Chi and autobiography (dual intervention), and general health education. Participants are relatively healthy adults aged 70 years or older, who are not regular practitioners of Tai Chi or regular writers. They are without medical or neurological disorders that would substantially limit the ability to participate in study interventions, without dementia or mild cognitive impairment, relatively sedentary, able to walk unassisted, and able to score 4 or better on the Short Physical Performance Battery. Interventions are administered over a 6 month period of time, with similar exposure times among the four groups. The prespecified primary endpoint is derived from a composite neuropsychological measure, based on three tests of executive function and three tests of episodic memory. The planned sample size is 96 (24 per group). Intention-to-treat analysis will include all eligible participants who complete baseline assessments.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 175
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Stanford, California, United States, 94305
      • Stanford University School of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 70 years and older (Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 70 years of age or older.
• No other household member already enrolled.
• In reasonably good health: no serious cognitive problem; free of any condition that would limit your ability to participate in Tai Chi classes (a moderate intensity exercise), in Qigong exercises, in a writing program, or in a seminar series.
• Not presently engaged in a regular exercise program; not presently engaged in Tai Chi Qigong or another form of Eastern exercise; and not a regular writer.
• Not now engaged in research to enhance cognitive skills.
• Willing to travel to Stanford for ACE-Seniors program classes. Planning to be in the area during most of the coming year;
• Willing to be assigned randomly (by chance) to one of the ACE-Senior activities.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Failure to meet inclusion criteria.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

6

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Tai Chi; Tai Chi exercises	Behavioral: Tai Chi; Tai Chi classes and exercises
Experimental: Guided autobiography; Autobiographical writing during class sessions and at home	Behavioral: Guided autobiography; Autobiographical writing in class and at home
Experimental: Qigong; Qigong exercises (exploratory, not part of the original protocol, added to gain experience with this intervention)	Behavioral: Qigong; Qigong classes and exercises (exploratory)
Active Comparator: Successful aging; Seminars on the theme of successful aging	Behavioral: Successful aging; Seminar series on the theme of successful aging
Experimental: Combination; Combination of Tai Chi exercises and autobiographical writing	Behavioral: Combination; Combination of Tai Chi exercises and autobiographical writing
Placebo Comparator: Comparison; No assigned experimental activity (exploratory, not part of the original protocol, added to gain experience with a placebo comparator)	Behavioral: Comparison; No assigned behavioral activity (exploratory)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Cognitive (executive function and episodic memory)	6 and 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Other cognitive measures	6 and 12 months
Physical performance and other non-cognitive measures	6 and 12 months
Adherence and retention	6 and 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Stanford University
• Collaborators: National Institute on Aging (NIA)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Dr Victor Henderson, Stanford University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: March 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 1, 2012
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 25, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 26, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): March 29, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): November 20, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 18, 2014
• Last Verified: November 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: SU-02042010-4903; R01AG034639 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)