College of Health and Medicine

The most recent Preventing Dementia Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre ran during October and November 2018, with over 16,000 people enrolled.

For this iteration of the course the MOOC team expanded the section on ‘Interventions for Prevention’ to include information about an exciting international research initiative called ‘World Wide FINGERs’.

The original FINGER trial (FINnish GERiatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability) was a two-year study carried out in Finland, testing an intervention to reduce dementia risk factors in older people.

The intervention helped participants in four areas – nutrition, physical exercise, cognitive activity and management of cardiovascular risk factors. This was the first study to show that it may be possible to prevent cognitive decline using an intensive lifestyle intervention and highlighted the value of addressing multiple dementia risk factors as a strategy to protect brain health.

This research is now being expanded with similar trials around the world. Chinese researchers are planning the Multimodal INtervention to delay Dementia and disability in rural China (MIND-CHINA). They aim to test whether a program sensitive to Chinese lifestyle and culture will help maintain cognitive and physical function among community-dwelling older people in rural areas of China.

Researchers in the USA are testing a similar intervention in American older adults, in the US-POINTER trial (US Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability). They aim to include culturally and geographically diverse populations at high risk for dementia.

The Wicking MOOC team interviewed Professor Rachel Whitmer from University of California Davis for the Preventing Dementia MOOC. She told the MOOC team that US-POINTER would be getting underway in two sites during 2018, including in California under her lead. The team hope to interview her again to update the MOOC content as findings from World Wide FINGERs emerge.