ACAR Brain Health Intervention Study

ACAR Brain Health Intervention Study: A Preliminary Investigation of Subjective Memory and Well-Being

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Aging Well
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: TBH Brain Workout 1.0; Behavioral: TBH Brain Workout 2.0; Behavioral: TBH Memory 1.0; Behavioral: TBH Memory 2.0; Behavioral: Brain Health Book Club

Detailed Description

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 294
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Ian M McDonough, PhD; Phone Number: 205-737-3442; Email: immcdonough@ua.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Carpantato Myles, MSM, CIM, CIP; Phone Number: 205-348-5746; Email: cmyles@fa.ua.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Alabama
    • Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, 35487
      • Recruiting
      • The University of Alabama
      • Contact: Ian M McDonough, PhD; Phone Number: 205-737-3442; Email: immcdonough@ua.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 60 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Aged 60 and older

Exclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosed with a memory disorder
• Currently engaging in other cognitive or brain training research

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

6

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 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.	Behavioral: TBH Brain Workout 1.0; TBH Brain Workout program with easy challenge activities.
Experimental: 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.	Behavioral: TBH Brain Workout 2.0; TBH Brain Workout program with moderately difficult challenge activities.
Experimental: 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.	Behavioral: TBH Memory 1.0; TBH Memory program with easy challenge activities.
Experimental: 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.	Behavioral: TBH Memory 2.0; TBH Memory program with moderately difficult challenge activities
Active Comparator: 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.	Behavioral: Brain Health Book Club; Each week a new chapter will be read that contains new information to enhance brain health.
No Intervention: No Contact Wait List; The Wait List group will simply take the the surveys at each time point as the other groups.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Brain Health Fund of Knowledge Questionnaire	Test of knowledge of lifestyle factors that improve brain health, ranging from 0 to 30 with a higher score representing better knowledge.	2 months
Memory Controllability Inventory: Potential for Improvement (Lachman, 1995)	Self-reported assessment of one's own potential to improve their own cognition with a minimum score of 3 and maximum of 21 with higher scores indicating greater potential for improvement.	2 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
TBH Brain Workout Groups: Center for Epidemiological Survey-Depression (Radloff, 1977)	Self-reported assessment of depressive symptoms, ranging from 0 to 60 where higher scores indicate more depression.	2 months
TBH Brain Workout Groups: Daily Habits Questionnaire	Self-reported assessment of engagement in daily activities that promote brain health, ranging from 30 to 210 where higher scores represent more engagement in daily health habits.	2 months
TBH Memory Groups: Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire (Troyer & Rich, 2002)	Self-reported assessment of subjective memory on contentment (ranging from 9-72), ability (ranging from 0-77), and strategy (ranging from 9-64) with higher scores being better.	2 months
All Groups: Brain Health Fund of Knowledge Questionnaire	Test of knowledge of lifestyle factors that improve brain health, ranging from 0 to 30 with a higher score representing better knowledge.	4 months
All Groups: Memory Controllability Inventory: Potential for Improvement (Lachman, 1995)	Self-reported assessment of one's own potential to improve their own cognition with a minimum score of 3 and maximum of 21 with higher scores indicating greater potential for improvement.	4 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
All Groups: Modifiable Dementia Risk Questionnaire (based on Deckers et al., 2015)	Self-report of having modifiable risk factors for dementia, ranging from -5.92 to 13.7 where higher is representative of a greater risk for dementia	2 and 4 month time points
All Groups: Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (Hughes et al., 2004)	Self-report assessment of loneliness, ranging from 17 to 68 where higher numbers represent greater loneliness.	2 and 4 month time points
All Groups: The Social Disconnectedness Scale (Cornwell et al., 2009)	Self-report assessment of amount of social support, ranging from 9 to 36 where higher numbers represent greater social support.	2 and 4 month time points

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

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

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2018
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): January 1, 2020
• Study Completion (Anticipated): December 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 18, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 19, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): December 23, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 23, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 19, 2019
• Last Verified: December 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Intervention; Well-being; Brain Health; Subjective Memory; Educational Program
• Other Study ID Numbers: ACARTBH

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No