methodology-for-establishing-community-wide-life-laboratory-for

Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data

An end-to-end suite of technologies has been established for the unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of health and activity changes occurring in the ...

Oregon Health & Science University

Trials aimed at preventing cognitive decline through cognitive stimulation among those with normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment are of significant importance in delaying the onset of dementia and reducing dementia prevalence. One challenge in these prevention trials is sample recruitment bias. Those willing to volunteer for these trials could be socially active, in relatively good health, and have high educational levels and cognitive function. These participants' characteristics could reduce the generalizability of study results and, more importantly, mask trial effects. We developed a randomized controlled trial to examine whether conversation-based cognitive stimulation delivered through personal computers, a webcam and the internet would have a positive effect on cognitive function among older adults with normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment. To examine the selectivity of samples, we conducted a mass mail-in survey distribution among community-dwelling older adults, assessing factors associated with a willingness to participate in the trial.

Characteristics associated with willingness to participate in a randomized controlled behavioral clinical trial using home-based personal computers and a webcam.

Detecting early signs of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) during the pre-symptomatic phase is becoming increasingly important for costeffective clinical trials and also for deriving maximum benefit from currently available treatment strategies. However, distinguishing early signs of MCI from normal cognitive aging is difficult. Biomarkers have been extensively examined as early indicators of the pathological process for AD, but assessing these biomarkers is expensive and challenging to apply widely among pre-symptomatic community dwelling older adults. Here we propose assessment of social markers, which could provide an alternative or complementary and ecologically valid strategy for identifying the pre-symptomatic phase leading to MCI and AD.

Social Markers of Mild Cognitive Impairment: Proportion of Word Counts in Free Conversational Speech.

Increasing social interaction could be a promising intervention for improving cognitive function. We examined the feasibility of a randomized controlled trial to assess whether conversation-based cognitive stimulation, through personal computers, webcams, and a user-friendly interactive Internet interface had high adherence and a positive effect on cognitive functions among older adults without dementia.

Article	Year
Characteristics associated with willingness to participate in a randomized controlled behavioral clinical trial using home-based personal computers and a webcam. Trials\| PubMed ID: 25539637	2014
Social Markers of Mild Cognitive Impairment: Proportion of Word Counts in Free Conversational Speech. Current Alzheimer research\| PubMed ID: 26027814	2015
Web-enabled Conversational Interactions as a Means to Improve Cognitive Functions: Results of a 6-Week Randomized Controlled Trial. Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.)\| PubMed ID: 26203461	2015

Molly Bowman

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