A small pilot study hints that personalized interventions have a powerful potential for boosting cognitive health in older people at risk of Alzheimer’s.
Dementias, including Alzheimer’s, are among the most feared illnesses affecting older adults, and it’s clear why. Globally, tens of millions of people are living with dementia, and there are limited effective treatments.
So University of California, San Francisco neurologist Kristine Yaffe and colleagues have taken a new approach.
“This is the first personalized intervention, focusing on multiple areas of cognition, in which risk factor targets are based on a participant’s risk profile, preferences and priorities,” explains Yaffe.
The researchers provided personal, customized coaching for 82 experimental group participants.
This involved each volunteer working with a coach to identify goals based on risk factors and tailor activities to suit each individual’s abilities, interests, and preferences across diet, medication, exercise, social, psychological, sleep, and education programs.
From food logging to fitness trackers, video chats to volunteering, and medication to mindfulness, each program had many available approaches.
Another 90 participants…
