Dementia Risk Reduced By Speed Training

Speed training reduced the risk of dementia by 29% among health older adults, according to a recent study.

The randomized controlled trial included 2802 initially healthy older adults who were assigned to either memory, reasoning, or speed of processing cognitive training or a no-contact control group. Participants received up to 10 training seasons over 6 weeks with up to 4 sessions of booster training at 11 months and 35 months. Assessments were conducted immediately after training and 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 years. The researchers used interview and performance-based methods to evaluate participants with dementia.
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During follow-up, 260 cases of dementia were documented.

While memory and reasoning training were not associated with a reduced risk of dementia compared with controls, speed training reduced this risk across the 10 years of follow-up. The lower risk for dementia was more prominent among those who completed a greater number of training sessions, with each additional session associated with a 10% lower risk for dementia. This remained significant after researchers adjusted for age, sex, race, depressive symptoms, diabetes, and congestive heart failure.

“We have shown that a specific form of cognitive training, speed of processing, reduced the risk of dementia in initially well-functioning older adults followed up to 10 years,” the researchers concluded. “This is the first report of an intervention significantly reducing dementia risk.”

“Future research should examine ways to increase the potency of this form of training intrinsically (e.g., increasing dose) and possibly by adding other putative protective interventions (e.g., exercise and diet).”

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Edwards JD, Xu H, Clark DO, Guey LT, Ross LA, Unverzagt FW. Speed of processing training results in lower risk of dementia [published online November 7, 2017]. Alzheimers Dement. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trci.2017.09.002.