Applying a Person-Centered Approach to Enhance Cognitive Training in Senior Living Community Residents With Mild Cognitive Impairment
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- PEP
- Conditions
- Mild Cognitive Impairment
- Sponsor
- University of Rochester
- Enrollment
- 49
- Locations
- 2
- Primary Endpoint
- Mean Change in ADL Score From Baseline to Week 10
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- 2 months ago
Overview
Brief Summary
Computerized cognitive interventions (CCIs) have been increasingly widely implemented among older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, the efficacy of CCIs in maintaining or improving older adults' cognitive and functional health has been modest and highly variable. Older individuals' attitudes toward technology use may help explain some of the variability in CCI effects. The goal of this R21 is to generate proof-of-concept for an intervention that may improve attitudes toward computers among those with MCI, in turn improving engagement with and efficacy of a subsequent CCI. Person-centered care-that is, integrating individuals' preferences throughout the process of intervention--has improved intervention engagement among older persons, including those with MCI. A recent intervention predicated on this person-centered approach is called "personalized engagement program" (PEP). PEP involves a database of individualized computer-led leisure activities. The investigators' recent pilot data in senior living facilities suggest that PEP promotes psychological well-being among older persons with MCI, and may shift computers from dauntingly complex or personally irrelevant devices to familiar, enjoyable technology. These results are consistent with a number of theories indicating that exposure to pleasurable experiences with an object or task improves several dimensions of attitudes, including affective and cognitive components, as well as behavior and motivation. Grounded in both this pilot data and the theory around it, the investigators seek to take the next step in an arc of research ultimately intended to improve the efficacy of CCIs. A small randomized controlled trial (RCT) is proposed to assess whether an initial period of PEP, followed by a standard CCI, improves a) attitudes toward computers, b) engagement with the CCI, and c) cognitive outcomes, compared to an attention control period followed by CCI. Our design involving stratified random assignment of 50 assisted living residents with MCI from 4 senior living facilities to these two groups. The initial phase involves 4 weeks of either attention control or PEP, a "dose" suggested by prior work on attitude change and computers, followed by 6 weeks of CCI for both groups (a period our prior work indicates is sufficient for change in key cognitive domains among this population). This application is the first of which we are aware striving to augment CCIs, which are now ubiquitous, by addressing an attitudinal or affective element of the person, which are often ignored in the cognitive intervention literature. The adjuvant of PEP also answers increasing calls for "personalized" or "person-centered" behavioral interventions with older persons.
Investigators
Vankee Lin
Assistant Professor
University of Rochester
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •18 ≤ MoCA ≤ 26
- •RAVLT Delayed Recall Total Score ≤ 6 (or 1.5 SD below age-corrected norms)
- •mild or no active depressive symptoms
- •intact or mild deficits in IADL functioning
- •if on AD medication (i.e., Memantine or cholinesterase inhibitors), antidepressant, or anxiolytics, no changes of doses in the 3 months prior to recruitment;
- •age ≥60 years
- •English-speaking
- •adequate visual and hearing acuity for testing
- •intact decision making capacity.
Exclusion Criteria
- •current enrollment in another cognitive improvement study;
- •uncontrollable major depression: or other psychopathology identified by staff or medical records;
- •having active legal guardian (indicating impaired capacity for decision making);
- •medical history of AD or other types of dementia
Arms & Interventions
PEP+CCI
PEP: The PEP system is built on a picture-based touch-screen interface on tablet computers. PEP allows users to explore and participate in entertainment, educational, spiritual, and other recreational activities and content personalized according to their interests and preferences. It provides easy access to the Internet and communication applications, and has hundreds of modules spanning music, travel, trivia, games, and religious and inspirational domains. CCI. VSOP training will use five training paradigms (Eye for detail, Peripheral challenge, Visual sweep, Double decision, Target tracker) that practice processing speed and attention. Intervention format and fidelity The PEP+CCI group will practice PEP for the first 4 weeks and VSOP for the following 6 weeks.
Intervention: PEP
PEP+CCI
PEP: The PEP system is built on a picture-based touch-screen interface on tablet computers. PEP allows users to explore and participate in entertainment, educational, spiritual, and other recreational activities and content personalized according to their interests and preferences. It provides easy access to the Internet and communication applications, and has hundreds of modules spanning music, travel, trivia, games, and religious and inspirational domains. CCI. VSOP training will use five training paradigms (Eye for detail, Peripheral challenge, Visual sweep, Double decision, Target tracker) that practice processing speed and attention. Intervention format and fidelity The PEP+CCI group will practice PEP for the first 4 weeks and VSOP for the following 6 weeks.
Intervention: CCI
control+CCI
For the control + CCI group, an inert control condition, consisting of nothing outside of the ordinary, will be implemented for the first 4 weeks, and CCI for 6 more weeks.
Intervention: CCI
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Mean Change in ADL Score From Baseline to Week 10
Time Frame: Baseline to Week 10
The Activities of Daily Living (ADL) score is the sum of 15 items, resulting in a total performance score ranging from 0 to 60. Lower scores indicate better self-perceived functioning in daily living activities, while higher scores indicate more impaired functioning. The change score was calculated as Week 10 minus Baseline.
Mean Change in ADL Score From Baseline to Week 23
Time Frame: Baseline to Week 23
The Activities of Daily Living (ADL) score is the sum of 15 items, creating a total score ranging from 0 to 60. Lower scores indicate better self-perceived functioning in daily living activities, while higher scores indicate more impaired functioning. The change score was calculated as Week 23 minus Baseline.
Mean Executive Function Measured by Examiner
Time Frame: Baseline to week 4
EXAMINER provides a scoring script that generates an Executive Function (EF) composite by applying item response theory (IRT) Empirical Bayes scoring to the raw continuous task scores. The composite is presented in the original metric used in the item response theory algorithm; the score is not a norm-referenced measure and is not adjusted for age. EF was measured with a subset of five tasks (flanker, set-shifting, dot-counting, category fluency, 1-back and anti-saccades) from the NIH EXAMINER v3.6 battery (Kramer et al., 2014). The composite is presented in the original metric used in the item response theory algorithm; the score is not a norm-referenced measure and is not adjusted for age. Scores range from -1.50 to 1.52. Higher scores mean better executive function.
Mean Executive Function Measured by Examiner
Time Frame: Baseline to End of Week 10 Evaluation
EXAMINER provides a scoring script that generates an Executive Function (EF) composite by applying item response theory (IRT) Empirical Bayes scoring to the raw continuous task scores. The composite is presented in the original metric used in the item response theory algorithm; the score is not a norm-referenced measure and is not adjusted for age. EF was measured with a subset of five tasks (flanker, set-shifting, dot-counting, category fluency, 1-back and anti-saccades) from the NIH EXAMINER v3.6 battery (Kramer et al., 2014). The composite is presented in the original metric used in the item response theory algorithm; the score is not a norm-referenced measure and is not adjusted for age. Scores range from -1.50 to 1.52. Higher scores mean better executive function.
Mean Executive Function Measured by Examiner
Time Frame: Baseline to End of 23 Weeks
EXAMINER provides a scoring script that generates an Executive Function (EF) composite by applying item response theory (IRT) Empirical Bayes scoring to the raw continuous task scores. The composite is presented in the original metric used in the item response theory algorithm; the score is not a norm-referenced measure and is not adjusted for age. EF was measured with a subset of five tasks (flanker, set-shifting, dot-counting, category fluency, 1-back and anti-saccades) from the NIH EXAMINER v3.6 battery (Kramer et al., 2014). The composite is presented in the original metric used in the item response theory algorithm; the score is not a norm-referenced measure and is not adjusted for age. Scores range from -1.50 to 1.52. Higher scores mean better executive function.
Secondary Outcomes
- Mean Change in Attitudes Toward Computers Questionnaire(Baseline to week 4)
- Mean Change in Attitudes Toward Computers Questionnaire(Baseline to End of Week 10 Evaluation)
- Mean Change in Attitudes Toward Computers Questionnaire(Baseline to End of 23 Weeks)
- Mean Change in Brief Visuospatial Memory Test(Baseline to Week 4)
- Mean Change in Brief Visuospatial Memory Test(Baseline to Week 10)
- Mean Change in Brief Visuospatial Memory Test(Baseline to week 23)
- Mean Change in EPCCE Sum Score From Baseline to Week 4(Baseline to Week 4)
- Mean Change in EPCCE Sum Score From Baseline to Week 10(Baseline to Week 10)
- Mean Change in EPCCE Sum Score From Baseline to Week 23(Baseline to Week 23)
- Mean Change in UFOV Score From Baseline to Week 10(Baseline to Week 10)
- Mean Change in UFOV Score From Baseline to Week 23(Baseline to Week 23)
- Mean Change in Activities of Daily Living-Prevention Instrument(Baseline to week 23)