Better Memory With Literacy Acquisition Later in Life

University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Memory Impairment

Treatments: Behavioral: Literacy training; Behavioral: Non-Literacy training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04473235

R21AG069252 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

P0541386

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to discover whether acquiring basic-literacy in adulthood can improve episodic memory and brain structural and functional connectivity. In a collaborative project between Brazil and USA, the investigators will use a randomized controlled trial approach to leverage the level of evidence of the benefits of basic adult-education as a possible cognitive reserve builder. If successful, the study's findings will be important in shaping policies targeting increasing access to late-life education to reduce dementia risk.

Enrollment: 108 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 40 to 89 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Being illiterate (TOFHLA score <53) and availability to participate in the study for at least 12 months

Exclusion criteria

A) Presence of remarkable cognitive complains and/or decompensated psychiatric illness (depression and anxiety) and/or current substance abuse such as alcohol and illicit drugs use.

B) Objective cognitive impairment: score of 2 standard deviations or bellow for age and education on the Mini-Mental State Evaluation (MMSE) and/or score of 6 or lower on the delayed recall task from the Brief Cognitive Battery.

C) History of previously diagnosed dyslexia D) Formal MRI contraindications including metal or claustrophobia. E) Severe structural lesions detected by MRI.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

---

108 participants in 2 patient groups

Literacy training

Experimental group

Description:

The basic-literacy training will be given for two hours/day for four days/week for 6 months. At baseline, participants will be randomized into four classes of 30. An expert in adult education will oversee the classes and meet the teachers periodically, and each class will count with a certified and experienced lead teacher and teacher aid. The intervention group will receive literacy training based on analytical and phonemic methods for enabling reading and writing

Treatment:

Behavioral: Literacy training

Non-literacy training

Active Comparator group

Description:

The comparator group will have access to non-literacy classes offered at the adult school, including geography, history, informatics, and sciences, but no literacy-training, for two hours/day for four days/week for 6 months.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Non-Literacy training