Michelle C Carlson1, Julie H Kuo2, Yi-Fang Chuang3, Vijay R Varma4, Greg Harris5, Marilyn S Albert6, Kirk I Erickson7, Arthur F Kramer8, Jeanine M Parisi9, Qian-Li Xue10, Eriwn J Tan11, Elizabeth K Tanner12, Alden L Gross13, Teresa E Seeman14, Tara L Gruenewald15, Sylvia McGill16, George W Rebok4, Linda P Fried17. 1. Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: mcarlso2@jhu.edu. 2. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. 3. Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, and Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. 4. Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. 5. Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. 6. Department of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. 7. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. 8. Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA. 9. Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. 10. Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. 11. The Corporation for National and Community Service, Washington, DC, USA. 12. Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Community-Public Health, The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, USA. 13. Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. 14. Division of Geriatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA. 15. Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. 16. Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Baltimore, MD, USA. 17. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: There is a substantial interest in identifying interventions that can protect and buffer older adults from atrophy in the cortex and particularly, the hippocampus, a region important to memory. We report the 2-year effects of a randomized controlled trial of an intergenerational social health promotion program on older men's and women's brain volumes. METHODS: The Brain Health Study simultaneously enrolled, evaluated, and randomized 111 men and women (58 interventions; 53 controls) within the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial to evaluate the intervention impact on biomarkers of brain health at baseline and annual follow-ups during the 2-year trial exposure. RESULTS: Intention-to-treat analyses on cortical and hippocampal volumes for full and sex-stratified samples revealed program-specific increases in volumes that reached significance in men only (P's ≤ .04). Although men in the control arm exhibited age-related declines for 2 years, men in the Experience Corps arm showed a 0.7% to 1.6% increase in brain volumes. Women also exhibited modest intervention-specific gains of 0.3% to 0.54% by the second year of exposure that contrasted with declines of about 1% among women in the control group. DISCUSSION: These findings showed that purposeful activity embedded within a social health promotion program halted and, in men, reversed declines in brain volume in regions vulnerable to dementia. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT0038.
RCT Entities:
INTRODUCTION: There is a substantial interest in identifying interventions that can protect and buffer older adults from atrophy in the cortex and particularly, the hippocampus, a region important to memory. We report the 2-year effects of a randomized controlled trial of an intergenerational social health promotion program on older men's and women's brain volumes. METHODS: The Brain Health Study simultaneously enrolled, evaluated, and randomized 111 men and women (58 interventions; 53 controls) within the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial to evaluate the intervention impact on biomarkers of brain health at baseline and annual follow-ups during the 2-year trial exposure. RESULTS: Intention-to-treat analyses on cortical and hippocampal volumes for full and sex-stratified samples revealed program-specific increases in volumes that reached significance in men only (P's ≤ .04). Although men in the control arm exhibited age-related declines for 2 years, men in the Experience Corps arm showed a 0.7% to 1.6% increase in brain volumes. Women also exhibited modest intervention-specific gains of 0.3% to 0.54% by the second year of exposure that contrasted with declines of about 1% among women in the control group. DISCUSSION: These findings showed that purposeful activity embedded within a social health promotion program halted and, in men, reversed declines in brain volume in regions vulnerable to dementia. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT0038.
Authors: K I Erickson; C A Raji; O L Lopez; J T Becker; C Rosano; A B Newman; H M Gach; P M Thompson; A J Ho; L H Kuller Journal: Neurology Date: 2010-10-13 Impact factor: 9.910
Authors: Nicolas Cherbuin; Moyra E Mortby; Andrew L Janke; Perminder S Sachdev; Walter P Abhayaratna; Kaarin J Anstey Journal: Am J Hypertens Date: 2014-08-26 Impact factor: 2.689
Authors: Josephine Barnes; Jonathan W Bartlett; Laura A van de Pol; Clement T Loy; Rachael I Scahill; Chris Frost; Paul Thompson; Nick C Fox Journal: Neurobiol Aging Date: 2008-03-17 Impact factor: 4.673
Authors: Jason Steffener; Adam M Brickman; Christian G Habeck; Timothy A Salthouse; Yaakov Stern Journal: Hum Brain Mapp Date: 2012-07-17 Impact factor: 5.038
Authors: Denise C Park; Jennifer Lodi-Smith; Linda Drew; Sara Haber; Andrew Hebrank; Gérard N Bischof; Whitley Aamodt Journal: Psychol Sci Date: 2013-11-08
Authors: Kyle D Moored; Thomas Chan; Vijay R Varma; Yi-Fang Chuang; Jeanine M Parisi; Michelle C Carlson Journal: J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci Date: 2020-09-14 Impact factor: 4.077
Authors: C Elizabeth Shaaban; Howard Jay Aizenstein; Dana R Jorgensen; Rebecca L M Mahbubani; Nicole A Meckes; Kirk I Erickson; Nancy W Glynn; Joseph Mettenburg; Jack Guralnik; Anne B Newman; Tamer S Ibrahim; Paul J Laurienti; Abbe N Vallejo; Caterina Rosano Journal: Med Sci Sports Exerc Date: 2019-08 Impact factor: 5.411
Authors: William S Kremen; Asad Beck; Jeremy A Elman; Daniel E Gustavson; Chandra A Reynolds; Xin M Tu; Mark E Sanderson-Cimino; Matthew S Panizzon; Eero Vuoksimaa; Rosemary Toomey; Christine Fennema-Notestine; Donald J Hagler; Bin Fang; Anders M Dale; Michael J Lyons; Carol E Franz Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Date: 2019-01-22 Impact factor: 11.205
Authors: Taylor J Krivanek; Seth A Gale; Brittany M McFeeley; Casey M Nicastri; Kirk R Daffner Journal: J Alzheimers Dis Date: 2021 Impact factor: 4.472
Authors: Thomas Chan; Jeanine M Parisi; Kyle D Moored; Michelle C Carlson Journal: J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci Date: 2019-10-04 Impact factor: 4.077