An updated analysis from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study found that participants who completed targeted cognitive speed training sessions had a 25% lower incidence of dementia diagnoses over a 20-year follow-up period. The findings were reported by the University of Florida, whose researchers participated in the study, according to UF News.
Beginning in the late 1990s, nearly 3,000 older adults enrolled in the ACTIVE trial to evaluate whether cognitive training could affect long-term brain health, completing exercises designed to improve processing speed along with booster sessions delivered one and three years later; twenty-year follow-up findings, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions, reported that this form of cognitive speed training was associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
The ACTIVE study is considered one of the few large randomized controlled trials to report that a non-pharmaceutical intervention was associated with differences in dementia incidence. Earlier follow-ups found that participants maintained cognitive improvements five and ten years after the initial training, and 20-year results have now been reported. According to the University of Florida, Michael Marsiske, Ph.D., a professor and interim co-chair of the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, commented on the durability of the training’s long-term effects.
Marsiske told the University of Florida that the long-term persistence of the benefits was unexpected. The findings come as researchers continue to study potential preventive strategies for dementia, where treatment options remain limited. The latest results from the ACTIVE study contribute to research on non-drug interventions and may be considered in discussions among caregivers, health professionals, and policymakers regarding approaches to cognitive health.
