View clinical trials related to Healthy Aging.
Filter by:Loss of independence, cognitive decline, and difficulties in everyday function are areas of great concern for older adults and their families. From a public health perspective, successful efforts that enable older adults to age within their homes, as compared to nursing homes, will save an estimated $80 billion dollars per year. Cognitive training is one intervention that maintains cognition, everyday function, and health. Although clearly an important and effective intervention, the mediators, or mechanisms, underlying this program are unknown. Our overall objective is to assess the cognitive and psychosocial factors within daily life that account for the transfer of one form of cognitive training to everyday function. This exploratory double-blind trial will randomize older adults to 20 hours of cognitive training or cognitively stimulating activities. The investigators will assess cognitive and psychosocial factors before, during, and after training within daily life. The investigators will then compare such factors and assess how they impact the transfer of cognitive training to everyday functioning. The investigators will also include an eligible sub group of the EFIT participants who will have functional MRI brain scans and sleep evaluation using the Sleep Profiler, a clinically approved device, at pre and post brain training. The investigators will also monitor daily activity in this sub group using FitBIt watches. Our central hypothesis is that improvements in daily processing speed and attention, key components of higher order cognitive functions, will have the strongest relationship with everyday function changes. This exploratory study is the first of its kind and will be used to provide important data relevant to a future larger randomized controlled trial examining mediators of cognitive training in a representative sample of adults. Additionally, all data collection, with the exception of MRI, can be completed remotely within the participant's home. This information will assist in the future development of more effective home- and community-based interventions that maintain everyday function.
Older people show deficits in dynamic weight-shifting, as the investigators found that more time is needed to perform weight-shifts and the movements became less fluent and accurate in older versus younger adults. Deficits with weight-shifting in the mediolateral (left-right) direction have been linked to balance and falls in ageing. Balance control can be improved with training. Virtual reality (VR) based training programs for improving balance are gaining ground, as it can provide both fun and challenging balance tasks, enhancing motivation. The investigators demonstrated earlier that older adults show an overloaded neural activation pattern compared to young adults when performing the same VR-based mediolateral weight-shifting task (wasp game). What is yet unclear, is whether improved balance capacity can be gained with training and whether such an intervention impacts the underlying neural mechanisms. Using a combination of behavioral assessments and functional Near-Infrared Spectrocopy (fNIRS), the primary aim of this study is to investigate the effects of a VR-based weight-shift training and its underlying neural imprint in older adults. Furthermore, as a previous study done by the investigators also showed that adding an extra cognitive task in a so-called dual-task (DT) negatively affects weight-shifting performance, a secondary aim will be to test whether weight-shift training will enhance performance during such DT conditions. The results of this study may contribute to the future design of technology-based rehabilitation programs.
To evaluate the effect and support the tolerance of orally ingested formulation containing Eurycoma longifolia dietary supplement (Euryco-10) on a cohort of senior men.
A recently completed study suggested that processing speed and attention (PS/A) oriented cognitive training (VSOP) produced robust effect on PS/A and working memory, but not in cognitive control or episodic memory, and long-term effects were overall modest. The proposed R01 renewal proposes to identify additional attributes to further enhance transferred and long-term effects of PS/A training in older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by addressing adaptation capacity that underpins adaptive learning and neuroplasticity. The goal of the stage II double-blinded randomized trial is to test whether adding resonance frequency breathing (RFB) training to VSOP will strengthen multiple contributors to adaptation capacity, particularly the central and peripheral pathways of autonomic nervous system (ANS) flexibility, which will strengthen VSOP training effect on cognitive and brain function and slow the progress of dementia in MCI. The central hypothesis is that strengthening adaptation capacity, via improving autonomic nervous system (ANS) flexibility, will enhance neuroplasticity and slow progress of dementia in MCI, since adaptation capacity is critical for neuroplasticity of VSOP, but compromised in neurodegenerative process. Older adults with MCI (n = 114) will be randomly assigned to an 8-week combined intervention (RFB+VSOP), VSOP with guided imagery relaxation (IR) control, and a waitlist IR control, with periodical booster training sessions at follow-ups. Mechanistic and distal outcomes include ANS flexibility and multiple markers of dementia progress. Data will be collected across a 14-month period. The two primary aims are to examine long-term effects of the combined intervention on ANS flexibility (Aim 1), as well as the cognitive, behavioral, and functional capacity (Aim 2). The exploratory aim will be to determine the preliminary long-term effect of the combined intervention on neurodegeneration. This can be a reasonable renewal plan from the completed study, aiming to identify additional attributes to further enhance transferred and long-term effects of cognitive training in MCI. This will be among the first randomized controlled trials to examine a novel, combined intervention targeting adaptation capacity in MCI, with an ultimate goal for slowing neurodegeneration. In addition, research on how to monitor adherence - the extent to which VSOP training is delivered and followed as intended - has been conceptually and methodologically limited. Robust monitoring of adherence to cognitive training requires valid assessment of effective engagement. Here, we apply our well-supported, novel framework of mental fatigability for measuring effective engagement in cognitive training. Mental fatigability, the failure to remain engaged in tasks requiring sustained mental effort, can be captured via measures of self-reported disengagement, increase in reaction time during tasks, and facial expression of negative valence/low arousal. These markers of disengagement relate to ventromedial prefrontal cortex dysfunction. We will apply this framework to advance understanding of the underpinnings of adherence to VSOP training by monitoring the extent of effective engagement while using the training platform.
To evaluate the acute effects of respiratory muscle exercises vs. a control intervention on blood glucose kinetics in healthy adults after an oral glucose tolerance test.
The purpose of this study is to measure the amount of amyloid in the brain. Amyloid is a protein found in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease and can be detected using a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan. This study is interested in how amyloid levels in the brain relate to memory and thinking abilities.
The purpose of this study is to ensure effective health management among community-living older adults during unprecedented times, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to demographic changes that have resulted in an aging population, the role of caregiver of an older adult has become very important in recent years. While numerous programs have been designed to lighten the caregiver's physical and emotional burden, fewer programs train caregivers to improve skills and level of independence in the person they care for. The objectives of this research study were to assess the benefits of a caregiver training program on the cognitive and functional status of older adults, as well as to compare the effects of this program according to type of caregiver (professional caregiver vs. family caregiver). Methods: The sample was composed of 160 older adults: a) 100 received care from caregivers who had taken the training program (treatment group), of which 60 were professional caregivers and 40 were family caregivers; and b) 60 received care from caregivers who had not taken the program (control group). In order to evaluate program effects on cognitive and functional status, we used both direct measures (MMSE, CAPE and EuroQol) and caregiver reports (Barthel and RMPBC).
Health-social partnership has been governed by regulations in many developed countries for some years. For instance, the government of United Kingdom has implemented a policy specifically designed to facilitate the discharge of older adults by collaborating health and social care workers in hospitals. The United States also formulated a policy to support the development of collaborative and multi-agency care services in community setting for helping those who are vulnerable and underserved including ethnic minorities, homeless people, and those without health insurance. While these services were shown to reduce the delays in hospital discharge and improve access to services, they were found to be health-dominated and the involvement of service users in strategic design and planning was lacking. As a result, the actual process in practice was reported to be poor and a true model of health and social care partnership was not attained. Currently in Hong Kong, health-social partnership has not yet been driven and guided by policy. It is still unknown for researchers and practitioners as how to effectively build a seamless working partnership among two different disciplines and sustain in the community to support the independent living of older adults.
Introduction: The World Health Organization has launched the INSPIRE-ICOPE-CARE program towards healthy aging. It includes "intrinsic capacity", defined as "the composite of all the physical and mental capacities of an individual", which has a positive value towards prevention, and is constructed by five domains: cognition, vitality/nutrition, sensory, psychology, and mobility. ICOPE App and ICOPE Monitor are applications for the self-assessment and monitoring of intrinsic capacity. Hypothesis: Intrinsic capacity self-assessed by the ICOPE Apps could be associated with the incidence of frailty and health outcomes. ICOPE Apps might support geriatric and primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Objectives: To assess the association between intrinsic capacity measured by the ICOPE Apps at baseline and the incidence of frailty in community-dwelling older adults during 1-year follow-up. Secondarily, to assess the association of intrinsic capacity and pre-frailty, falls, functional decline, institutionalization, and mortality (COVID-19-related/not related). Methods: Protocol for a cohort study of community-dwelling adults ≥65-year-old, with no other exclusion criteria than the inability to use the Apps or communicate by telephone/video-call for any reason (cognitive or limited access to telephone/video-call). Intrinsic capacity measured by the ICOPE Apps and Rockwood's clinical frailty scale will be assessed at baseline, 4-, 8- and 12-month follow-up by telephone/video-call. Assuming a prevalence of frailty of 10.7%, and incidence of 13% (alpha-risk=0.05), 400 participants at 12-month end-point (relative precision=0.10) and 600 participants at baseline will be required. Associations among the decrease in intrinsic capacity, incidence of frailty, and occurrence of health adverse outcomes during 1-year follow-up are expected. ICOPE Apps might identify individuals at higher risk of frailty and health adverse consequences. The implementation of the ICOPE Apps into clinical practice might help to bring the practitioners closer to their patients, deliver efficient person-centered care-plans, and benefit the healthcare systems during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.