DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36036.v1
title: Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE), United States, 1999-2008
title: Version 1

description: The data producers have recompiled the ACTIVE data into a new study which is available as of December 2023, ICPSR 38821; data users should plan to use study 38821 instead.
ACTIVE (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly), 1999-2008 was a multisite randomized controlled trial conducted at six field sites with New England Research Institutes (NERI) as the coordinating center. The field sites included the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Hebrew Senior Life (formerly Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged) in Boston, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Pennsylvania State University, and Wayne State University (Detroit).
Data in this study are drawn from measures of cognitively demanding daily activities performed by participants who received a variety of cognitive interventions. Measures included both cognitive functioning (memory, inductive reasoning, speed processing, and general knowledge) and daily functioning (everyday problem solving, observations of daily living, complex reaction time, and general functional ability). Secondary to these measures, the study also includes data on health care and service utilization, driving habits, and mobility.
Data were collected at the start of the study (baseline) as well as one, two, three, five, and ten years into the study. This collection includes the data from the tenth year of the study as well as a comprehensive analytical dataset, incorporating data from the previous collections (data from previous waves of the study as well as participant demographic data can be found in ICPSR 4248). A total of 2,832 older adults were enrolled in the trial, and 2,802 were included in the analytical sample. Twenty-six percent of the participants were African American.
description: The scientific goal of the trial was to test the effect of three cognitive training programs on improving both cognitive function and the ability to perform certain daily tasks that rely on mental abilities.
description: The design for ACTIVE was a randomized control trial. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups:
(1) Memory training;
(2) Reasoning training;
(3) Speed of Processing training; or
(4) no training (control).
The interventions occurred in replications, with each replication taking approximately 16-18 weeks. All subjects were assessed at baseline, immediately after the intervention period (post-test), and then at 12-months and 24-months. Booster sessions for each of the three training interventions are conducted within 45 days before the 12-month assessment. Phase II consisted of an assessment at 60 months following completion of training. Phase III consisted of an assessment at 120 months following completion of training. This study provides the data from Phase III activities.
description: The data are not weighted, and no weight variables are present in the collection.
description: Presence of Common Scales: CES-D, MMSE, SF-36, TICS
description: The sample consisted of 2,832 persons aged 65 to 94
recruited from 6 metropolitan areas in the United States. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) recruited participants from residents of Jefferson County, Alabama, who were licensed to drive or who possessed nondriver identification cards issued through the Alabama Department of Public Safety, and they recruited from UAB eye clinics. The Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged (HRCA) in Boston, Massachusetts, recruited from congregate and senior housing sites, senior centers, and a registry of volunteers for aging research at the Harvard Cooperative Program on Aging. Indiana University recruited clients of the Community Centers of Indianapolis and through local churches and senior organizations. Johns Hopkins University recruited from senior centers, churches, senior housing, and senior organizations in the Baltimore, Maryland, metropolitan area and in Cumberland, Maryland. Pennsylvania State University recruited from the enrollment files of a state-funded pharmaceutical assistance program for low-income elders, called PACE. And Wayne State University recruited from community organizations, churches, and senior housing
in metropolitan Detroit, as well as from state of Michigan driver registration lists. The study design also included a no-contact control group.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Form 001 Final Disposition Form
DS2: Form 002 Deceased Disposition Form
DS3: Form 300 Telephone Interview Form
DS4: Form 310 HVLT Intrusion/Perseveration Errors
DS5: Form 311 Word Series
DS6: Form 312 HVLT Recognition
DS7: Form 411 Digit Symbol Substitution & Digit Symbol Copy Data Coding Form
DS8: Form 422 OTDL
DS9: Form 05 Take-Home Questionnaire
DS10: Form 611 AVLT
DS11: Form 612 Letter Series
DS12: Form 613 AVLT Recognition
DS13: Form 614 Letter Sets
DS14: Form 615 Rivermead
DS15: Form 616 Vocabulary
DS16: Form 617 EPT
DS17: Form 619 AVLT Intrusion/Perseveration Errors
DS18: Form 707 Abbreviated Battery, Part I
DS19: Form 715 Abbreviated Battery, Part II
DS20: Form 717 Take-Home EPT
DS21: Form 805 Individual Assessment Part 1
DS22: Form 815 Individual Assessment Part 2
DS23: Analytic dataset
description: Americans age 65 years or older living in or near one of six study regions (Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Detroit, Indianapolis, or State College) who lived without formal care at the point of entry into the study but who were at risk of losing functional independence. Smallest Geographic Unit: Metropolitan area
description: cognitive assessment test; face-to-face interview; mail questionnaire; mixed mode; on-site questionnaire; telephone interviewThis collection is drawn from the tenth year of the ACTIVE study. Please see ICPSR 4248 ACTIVE, 1999-2001 [United States] for data from previous years.For analysis, the variable AID can be used to link the 23 datasets in this collection as well as the 43 datasets in ICPSR 4248 ACTIVE, 1999-2001 [United States].Some scoring manuals cited in this collection's documentation are not included with this collection. The scoring manuals for similar data collection instruments can be found with ICPSR 4248 ACTIVE, 1999-2001 [United States].The title of this collection was edited to conform to current metadata standards.Users should review the Manual in the study level files; on page 6 of the manual the treatment groups are defined:
"The design (Figure 1) for ACTIVE was a randomized control trial. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups:
1) Memory training; 2) Reasoning training; 3) Speed of Processing training; or 4) no training (control)."