Submission + - Simple Brain Exercise Cuts Dementia Risk by 25%, Study Claims (sciencealert.com)
fahrbot-bot writes: A simple brain-training exercise could reduce people's risk of developing dementia by 25 percent, a study reported on Monday, but with outside researchers expressing caution in interpreting the results.
The new study is a randomized controlled trial – considered the gold standard for medical research – which first began enrolling participants in the late 1990s.
More than 2,800 people aged 65 or older were randomly assigned one of three different types of brain training – speed, memory, or reasoning – or were part of a control group.
First, the participants did an hour-long training session twice a week for five weeks. One and three years later, they did four booster sessions. In total, there were fewer than 24 hours of training. During follow-ups after five, 10, and most recently 20 years, the speed training was always "disproportionately beneficial", study co-author Marilyn Albert of Johns Hopkins University in the United States told AFP.
After two decades, Medicare records showed that the people who did the speed-training and booster sessions had a 25-percent reduced risk of getting dementia, according to the study. The other two types of training did not make a statistically significant difference.
However, Rachel Richardson, a researcher at the Cochrane Collaboration not involved in the study, cautioned that "while statistically significant, the result may not be as impressive" as a 25-percent reduction. This is partly because the margins of error "range from a reduction of 41 percent to one of only five percent", she told the Science Media Centre. She added that the study excluded people with conditions such as poor vision or hearing, which meant it may not be fully representative.
"Although one subgroup analysis produced a significant result, this single finding is not generally regarded as strong enough evidence to demonstrate the intervention's effectiveness," he said.
"Further research is still needed to determine whether cognitive training can reduce the risk of dementia."
The new study is a randomized controlled trial – considered the gold standard for medical research – which first began enrolling participants in the late 1990s.
More than 2,800 people aged 65 or older were randomly assigned one of three different types of brain training – speed, memory, or reasoning – or were part of a control group.
First, the participants did an hour-long training session twice a week for five weeks. One and three years later, they did four booster sessions. In total, there were fewer than 24 hours of training. During follow-ups after five, 10, and most recently 20 years, the speed training was always "disproportionately beneficial", study co-author Marilyn Albert of Johns Hopkins University in the United States told AFP.
After two decades, Medicare records showed that the people who did the speed-training and booster sessions had a 25-percent reduced risk of getting dementia, according to the study. The other two types of training did not make a statistically significant difference.
However, Rachel Richardson, a researcher at the Cochrane Collaboration not involved in the study, cautioned that "while statistically significant, the result may not be as impressive" as a 25-percent reduction. This is partly because the margins of error "range from a reduction of 41 percent to one of only five percent", she told the Science Media Centre. She added that the study excluded people with conditions such as poor vision or hearing, which meant it may not be fully representative.
"Although one subgroup analysis produced a significant result, this single finding is not generally regarded as strong enough evidence to demonstrate the intervention's effectiveness," he said.
"Further research is still needed to determine whether cognitive training can reduce the risk of dementia."
