"Healthy Actions and Lifestyles to Avoid Dementia or Hispanos y el ALTo a la Demencia Program"
Condition: Dementia; Alzheimer's Disease; Dementia Prevention
MeSH terms: Alzheimer Disease; Dementia
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This initial four-months pilot study will focus on at least three educational courses
      (introduction to dementia and lifestyle risk factors, sleep and diet). It may also include a
      fourth educational course on social connectivity and loneliness. Completion of this initial
      pilot study will allow for a round of improvements informed by data from the program, on
      usability, as well as feedback from participants and citizen advisors. This will allow for an
      iterative process to build the program to its full content, with feedback to optimize the
      user experience and ensure the accessibility of the content. The information generated from
      this study will help inform the development of the second program's prototype, expected to
      benefit from the initial pilot to become more user-friendly, effective and accessible to the
      target audience.

      This pilot study will be a longitudinal study of an inception cohort exposed to the HALT-AD
      online educational program for a four-month study. It will utilize pre- and post-
      intervention collection of quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate the program's first
      prototype.
    

Detailed description: 
      Healthy Actions and Lifestyles to Avoid Dementia or Hispanos y el ALTo a la Demencia program
      (HALT- AD) is a novel bilingual educational program that will focus on reducing risk factors
      with the ultimate goal of preventing dementia. It will be centered around a web-based
      interactive virtual online platform that will be developed to be dynamic, engaging, and
      interactive. Through interactive courses, the educational content of HALT-AD will provide
      guidance on modifiable lifestyle risk factors and the identification of treatable medical
      conditions including cerebrovascular health, sleep, sensory loss, social isolation, mood,
      diet, and physical activity.

      Participants in HALT-AD will be provided with personalized risk profiles, will be encouraged
      to learn about risk factors and how they can effectively modify them, and will be provided
      with feedback on their progress. Participants will participate in facilitated support
      discussion groups, which will focus on the content of the educational material and the
      invocation of change through participant engagement and compliance.

      Prior to launching the full HALT-AD program, it is essential that the Sponsor conduct a
      preliminary pilot study to evaluate the program's first prototype. At the end of the 3-month
      pilot program, evaluations will include: the usability of- and engagement with- the online
      platform and users' acceptability of the learning content and facilitated support discussion
      groups. As well as evaluating preliminary evidence on the effectiveness of the program in
      changing knowledge, self-efficacy, and dementia-related lifestyle risk factors. The program
      will also be evaluated on metrics such as being user friendly, engaging, supportive and
      communicative, with the potential for scalability to state- and national-levels.

      Aims:

        1. To evaluate the usability of, and engagement with, the online platform

        2. To determine users' acceptability of:

             1. HALT AD program content

             2. facilitated support discussion groups

        3. To evaluate preliminary evidence on the effectiveness of the program in changing

             1. knowledge,

             2. self-efficacy, and

             3. dementia-related lifestyle risk factors.
    

Intervention name(s): HALT-AD
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): Prior studies have shown that programs that focus on promoting brain health and managing lifestyle risks (such as poor diet, obesity, physical inactivity, sleep issues, loneliness) may help in preventing or lowering the risk of dementia. To address this, we have developed the HALT-AD program. HALT-AD is an educational program designed to teach about dementia and lifestyle changes that can help preserve brain health and lower dementia risk
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention model description: This pilot study will be a longitudinal study of an inception cohort exposed to the HALT AD online educational program for a four month study. It will utilize pre- and post- intervention collection of quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate the program's first prototype. Cognitively normal midlife and older-adult participants will be eligible to participate in this pilot study with the following inclusion criteria:
. Ages 50-85
Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Telephone/Blind version (T-MoCA) Score equal to or greater than 18/22
Sufficient proficiency in English or Spanish to undergo clinical assessment and participate
Technical ability to participate
Sufficient vision and hearing to participate 20 participants will be enrolled at UCSD
10 will complete the English version
10 will complete the Spanish version
Aim to recruit 50% women and enroll a diverse participant sample across varied age ranges within both language groups
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Other
Keywords: dementia; prevention; education; lifestyle modification; digital health