Effects of a brief intervention for cognitive health among community elderly : a cluster randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: There is now widespread public interest in developing strategies to maintain or enhance cognitive health in the elderly. Cognitive decline in the elderly involves multiple pathophysiologic and psychosocial processes. Thus, research that focuses on preserving cognition may well identify a different set or combination of risk factors and thus different prevention strategies for healthy elderly subjects.Methods: This study examines 12-month outcomes from a clustering randomized controlled trial of a 5 group intervention vs a control condition among elderly aged over 60 years old. Hypotheses were that the interventions would be more effective than the control in reducing cognitive decline at 12 months’ follow-up.Results: This report describes a cluster randomized controlled trial of a brief intervention in a group of community dwelling elderly. This is the first study to examine the effectiveness of an intervention for cognitive health in a community setting. We found that the trial resulted in a change of mental and social activity in the score for the intervention group compared with the control group. However, the intervention did not result in a clinically meaningful improvement in MMSE scores.Conclusion: Considering that lifestyle behaviors co-occur, multiple health behavior approach appears more practical. In the brief intervention, encouragement of mental and social activity would be helpful in cognitive health of the community dwelling elderly.