Evaluation of the Online Memory & Aging Program and Online Goal Management Training

Baycrest

Status: Completed

Conditions: Aging; Cognitive Decline

Treatments: Behavioral: Memory & Aging Program; Behavioral: Goal Management Training; Behavioral: Cambridge Brain Sciences

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03602768

17-24

Details and patient eligibility

About

The current study is designed to test the effectiveness of online programs for memory and executive functions in healthy aging. The investigators are testing online adaptations of two cognitive interventions that have been extensively studied, validated, and implemented in clinical settings: The Memory & Aging Program (MAP) targets normal memory change in healthy aging, and Goal Management Training (GMT) targets executive functioning deficits in a variety of cognitive and neurological conditions including healthy aging. Both programs combine psycho-education, targeted skills training and clinical support to empower participants with knowledge and strategies to harness their cognitive faculties. These programs are being tested against a waitlist control as well as against a commercial/research brain training platform (Cambridge Brain Sciences) in a design comparing performance on memory and executive functioning measures before and after the interventions/controls. The main hypothesis is that MAP will lead to memory-specific improvements above control conditions, whereas GMT will lead to greater improvements in measures of executive functions relative to controls.

Enrollment: 800 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 60+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Available to participate in all testing and intervention sessions and access to a computer
• Computer familiarity
• Cognitive complaint/concern/frustration

Exclusion criteria

• Health conditions with major effects on cognition, including a current or previous history of stroke, brain surgery, or diagnosed neurological disorder;
• Dependence in instrumental activities of daily living
• Cognitive impairment, defined as performance below cutoff for cognitive impairment on a standardized cognitive screening measure, the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (Welsh et al., 1993)
• Affective impairment, defined as performance below cutoff for depression on standardized depression screen, the PHQ 2/9 (Yesavage et al., 1983)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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800 participants in 4 patient groups, including a placebo group

Goal Management Training

Experimental group

Description:

The online version of GMT with a therapist on the back-end monitoring progress and giving feedback throughout the program. Online GMT takes 5-9 weeks (self-paced) to complete 9 modules involving instructional video with interactive content, practice of cognitive strategies through games, and between-module exercises.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Goal Management Training

Memory & Aging Program

Experimental group

Description:

The online version of MAP with a therapist moderator on the course discussion pages. MAP takes 5-9 weeks (self-paced) to complete 8 modules involving instructional video with interactive content and practice of memory strategies through various exercises.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Memory & Aging Program

Cambridge Brain Sciences Training

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

This is a commercial and research brain training platform, composed of 7 games that are online adaptations of the standard measures of cognition including working memory and spacial planning.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cambridge Brain Sciences

Waitlist

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants randomized to this arm will receive no additional information or access to intervention programs until after the follow up testing measures are collected, at which point they will be given access to the intervention of their choosing.