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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2023 Mar 11;20(6):4941.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20064941.

Does Cognitive Training Reduce Falls across Ten Years?: Data from the ACTIVE Trial

Briana N Sprague  1   2 , Lesley A Ross  3 , Karlene K Ball  4
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Does Cognitive Training Reduce Falls across Ten Years?: Data from the ACTIVE Trial

Briana N Sprague et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cognitive training on the risk of experiencing a fall across 10 years. The study used data from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) randomized controlled trial. Older adults aged 65-94 were randomly assigned to speed of processing, memory, or reasoning training or to a no-contact control group (n = 2802). The experience of a fall in the prior two months was assessed at baseline and at 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 years posttest. Cox proportional hazards explored group differences in the total sample, as well as group differences for participants classified as low risk (n = 2360) and high risk (n = 442) for future falls. The data were censored at the first reported fall postbaseline. After baseline, 983 (35.08%) participants across the full sample reported a fall. There were no significant effects of the training in the full sample or in the low-risk sample of participants. However, the participants at greater risk for future falls in the speed of processing training group were 31% less likely (HR = 0.69; 95% CI = 0.48, 0.998, p = 0.049) to experience a subsequent fall across ten years compared to the control group. Reasoning and memory training did not reduce a future fall in the high-risk sample. The speed of processing training reduced the risk of future falls across ten years in the high-risk participants. Future work should examine moderators and mediators of training in at-risk samples.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00298558.

Keywords: falls; long-term follow-up; memory training; reasoning training; speed of processing training.

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Conflict of interest statement

Sprague and Ross have no real or perceived conflict of interest to disclose. Ball owns stock in the Visual Awareness Research Group (formerly Visual Awareness, Inc.), and Posit Science, Inc., the companies that market the Useful Field of View Test and speed of processing training software. Posit Science acquired Visual Awareness, and Ball continues to collaborate on the design and testing of these assessment and training programs as a member of the Posit Science Scientific Advisory Board.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
CONSORT flow chart of the ACTIVE trial.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Survival curves of the low-risk sample. There were no significant differences between speed of processing, memory, or reasoning training with the control group and the low-risk sample (p > 0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Survival curves of high-risk sample. There were significant differences between the speed of processing and no-contact control group (HR = 0.69, p = 0.049) but not the memory or reasoning training groups among the high-risk sample (p > 0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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