Purpose: Despite the rapidly growing population of older adults living alone with cognitive decline globally, there are limited effective interventions to help them adopt and maintain healthy behaviors to improve their physical function, emotional wellbeing, and quality of life. Methods: The Arizona State University (ASU) Roybal Center for Older Adults Living Alone with Cognitive Decline aims to guide the development and testing of mechanism-driven, technology-enabled behavioral and lifestyle interventions to reduce risk and slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias. The ASU Roybal Center will fund 12 clinical trials over 5 years (2024-2029) to advance this research. Results: The ASU Roybal Center’s framework utilizes five constructs; interventions, mechanistic, proximal, and long-term outcomes, and health disparity factors; postulating that technology-enabled interventions that target mechanisms of behavior change (MoBC) or biological pathways will effectively promote healthy behaviors. Trial 1 focuses on social support and stress resilience to increase physical activity in isolated older adults with subjective cognitive decline (15 completed pilot). Trial 2 (Stage I) focuses on interpersonal/social processes to improve emotional wellbeing for those with early AD living alone (21 enrolled: 14 completed, 7 active; 100% adherence). Presentation will include Trial 1 pilot data, findings from the Trial 2 pre-pilot (13 completed), and preliminary qualitative and demographic results from the ongoing Trial 2 pilot. Conclusions: Development of effective lifestyle and behavior change interventions for older adults living alone with cognitive decline has the potential to improve health outcomes and attenuate progression of AD and related dementias.

Authors:
Fang Yu, Arizona State University, United States
Kristi Spieleder, Arizona State University, United States
Molly Maxfield, Arizona State University, United States
Abigail Gómez-Morales, Arizona State University, United States
Ross Andel, Arizona State University, United States
Rodney Joseph, Arizona State University, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Yu is a leader in developing and testing behavioral and lifestyle interventions (e.g., exercise) to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD) in older adults, including those living alone.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/asufangyu/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Tuesday Schedule

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