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URL: http://crag.uab.edu/crag/active.asp

Proper Citation: Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) (RRID:SCR_000813)

Description: Data set from a randomized controlled trial of cognitive interventions designed to maintain functional independence in elders by improving basic mental abilities. Several features made ACTIVE unique in the field of cognitive interventions: (a) use of a multi-site, randomized, controlled, single-blind design; (b) intervention on a large, diverse sample; (c) use of common multi-site intervention protocols, (d) primary outcomes focused on long-term, cognitively demanding functioning as measured by performance-based tests of daily activities; and (e) an intent-to-treat analytical approach. The clinical trial ended with the second annual post-test in January 2002. A third annual post-test was completed in December 2003. The area population and recruitment strategies at the six field sites provided a study sample varying in racial, ethnic, gender, socioeconomic, and cognitive characteristics. At baseline, data were collected by telephone for eligibility screening, followed by three in-person assessment sessions, including two individual sessions and one group session, and a self-administered questionnaire. At post-tests, data were collected in-person in one individual session and one group session as well as by self-administered questionnaire. There were four major categories of measures: proximal outcomes (measures of cognitive abilities that were direct targets of training), primary outcomes (measures of everyday functioning, both self-report and performance), secondary outcomes (measures of health, mobility, quality of life, and service utilization), and covariates (chronic disease, physical characteristics, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, psychosocial variables, and demographics). Phase I of ACTIVE was a randomized controlled, single-blind trial utilizing a four-group design, including three treatment arms and a no-contact control group. Each treatment arm consisted of a 10-session intervention for one of three cognitive abilities memory, reasoning, and speed of processing. Testers were blind to participant treatment assignment. The design allowed for testing of both social contact effects (via the contact control group) and retest effects (via the no-contact control group) on outcomes. Booster training was provided in each treatment arm to a 60% random subsample prior to first annual post-test. Phase II of ACTIVE started in July, 2003 as a follow-up study focused on measuring the long-term impact of training effects on cognitive function and cognitively demanding everyday activities. The follow-up consisted of one assessment to include the Phase I post-test battery. This was completed in late 2004.

Abbreviations: ACTIVE

Synonyms: ACTIVE Study, Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly

Resource Type: data or information resource, data set

Keywords: cognitive function, cognition, longitudinal, mental ability, reasoning, memory, speed of processing