BRAIN-Diabetes: a randomised trial to test the feasibility of an adapted FINGER multidomain intervention in adults with type 2 diabetes living in rural border regions of Ireland.
Claire T McEvoy, Geraldine McCarthy, Rebecca F Townsend, Catherine Dolan, Joanne Regan-Moriarty, Christopher Cardwell, Bernadette McGuinness, Seán P Kennelly, Jim Kelly, Catherine McHugh, Frank Kee, John Bartlett, Caroline Bradshaw, Orla Reynolds, Valerie Mortland, Christina O'Neill, Ingrid McLoughlin, Noel McCaffrey, Margaret Heffernan, Cabrini Nolan, Peter A Passmore
{"title":"BRAIN-Diabetes: a randomised trial to test the feasibility of an adapted FINGER multidomain intervention in adults with type 2 diabetes living in rural border regions of Ireland.","authors":"Claire T McEvoy, Geraldine McCarthy, Rebecca F Townsend, Catherine Dolan, Joanne Regan-Moriarty, Christopher Cardwell, Bernadette McGuinness, Seán P Kennelly, Jim Kelly, Catherine McHugh, Frank Kee, John Bartlett, Caroline Bradshaw, Orla Reynolds, Valerie Mortland, Christina O'Neill, Ingrid McLoughlin, Noel McCaffrey, Margaret Heffernan, Cabrini Nolan, Peter A Passmore","doi":"10.1007/s10433-025-00862-0","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The Border Region Area lifestyle INtervention for healthy cognitive ageing in Diabetes' (BRAIN-Diabetes) trial aimed to test the feasibility of an adapted version of the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) multidomain intervention in cognitively healthy adults at risk of dementia living in border regions of Ireland.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>BRAIN-Diabetes was a 6-month randomised controlled pilot trial involving adults living in rural border regions who were ≥ 50 years old, without existing dementia but had a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and access to a computer. Individuals were randomised to either the multidomain intervention or the standard care control group. The intervention included diet counselling, physical exercise and computerised cognitive training which were delivered remotely and cardiometabolic risk monitoring which was delivered in person. The primary outcomes assessed feasibility of recruitment/retention and adherence to the intervention. Other outcomes explored intervention effects on cognitive, metabolic and health-related quality of life.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In total, 156 individuals were assessed for eligibility, and 79 (51%) were recruited (mean age 61.6 ± 6.9 (range 60-75) years; 68% male). After 6 months, retention was 81% (72% in intervention versus 90% control). Adherence rate was high with most participants attending > 50% of the scheduled intervention sessions. There was greater improvement in diet quality (p < 0.001), daily step count (p = 0.04), triglyceride levels (p = 0.02) and health-related quality of life (p < 0.05) in the intervention group compared to control. There were no observed intervention effects on cognitive performance over 6 months.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The BRAIN-Diabetes pilot trial demonstrated that an adapted FINGER model was feasible to deliver and efficacious in supporting lifestyle behavioural changes among a unique at-risk rural population. There were also indicative benefits for metabolic health and health-related quality of life over a short time frame. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov (registration ref: NCT05304975 accepted 31st March 2022).</p>","PeriodicalId":47766,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Ageing","volume":"22 1","pages":"30"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12185793/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Ageing","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-025-00862-0","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: The Border Region Area lifestyle INtervention for healthy cognitive ageing in Diabetes' (BRAIN-Diabetes) trial aimed to test the feasibility of an adapted version of the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) multidomain intervention in cognitively healthy adults at risk of dementia living in border regions of Ireland.
Methods: BRAIN-Diabetes was a 6-month randomised controlled pilot trial involving adults living in rural border regions who were ≥ 50 years old, without existing dementia but had a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and access to a computer. Individuals were randomised to either the multidomain intervention or the standard care control group. The intervention included diet counselling, physical exercise and computerised cognitive training which were delivered remotely and cardiometabolic risk monitoring which was delivered in person. The primary outcomes assessed feasibility of recruitment/retention and adherence to the intervention. Other outcomes explored intervention effects on cognitive, metabolic and health-related quality of life.
Results: In total, 156 individuals were assessed for eligibility, and 79 (51%) were recruited (mean age 61.6 ± 6.9 (range 60-75) years; 68% male). After 6 months, retention was 81% (72% in intervention versus 90% control). Adherence rate was high with most participants attending > 50% of the scheduled intervention sessions. There was greater improvement in diet quality (p < 0.001), daily step count (p = 0.04), triglyceride levels (p = 0.02) and health-related quality of life (p < 0.05) in the intervention group compared to control. There were no observed intervention effects on cognitive performance over 6 months.
Conclusions: The BRAIN-Diabetes pilot trial demonstrated that an adapted FINGER model was feasible to deliver and efficacious in supporting lifestyle behavioural changes among a unique at-risk rural population. There were also indicative benefits for metabolic health and health-related quality of life over a short time frame. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov (registration ref: NCT05304975 accepted 31st March 2022).
期刊介绍:
The European Journal of Ageing: Social, Behavioural and Health Perspectives is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the understanding of ageing in European societies and the world over.
EJA publishes original articles on the social, behavioral and population health aspects of ageing and encourages an integrated approach between these aspects.
Emphasis is put on publishing empirical research (including meta-analyses), but conceptual papers (including narrative reviews) and methodological contributions will also be considered.
EJA welcomes expert opinions on critical issues in ageing.
By stimulating communication between researchers and those using research findings, it aims to contribute to the formulation of better policies and the development of better practice in serving older adults.
To further specify, with the term ''social'' is meant the full scope of social science of ageing related research from the micro to the macro level of analysis. With the term ''behavioural'' the full scope of psychological ageing research including life span approaches based on a range of age groups from young to old is envisaged. The term ''population health-related'' denotes social-epidemiological and public health oriented research including research on functional health in the widest possible sense.