Predictors of changes after reasoning training in healthy adults

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate predictors of performance changes and their time course in healthy older adults.

Design: A post hoc analysis of a RCT investigating the effect of reasoning cognitive training (ReaCT) compared to an active control group (CG) during a time course.

Setting and participants: An online, home-based RCT including n = 4,310 healthy participants (ReaCT: n = 2,557; CG: n = 1,753) aged 50 years and older.

Methods: Multiple regression analyses were conducted to investigate predictors (age, sex, education, severity of depression, number of training sessions the participants attended, and neuropsychological baseline values) of the outcome measures grammatical reasoning, working memory, digit vigilance, verbal short-term memory, and verbal learning at 6 weeks, 3, and 6 months.

Results: Being female and lower education predicted improvements in grammatical reasoning scores at 6 weeks and 3 months of training.

Conclusion and implication: Identifying predictors for nonpharmacological interventions may help to set up a personalized medicine approach in order to prevent cognitive decline in healthy older adults.

Keywords: healthy older adults; prediction; reasoning cognitive training.