Impact of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial on cortical and hippocampal volumes

Michelle C Carlson; Julie H Kuo; Yi-Fang Chuang; Vijay R Varma; Greg Harris; Marilyn S Albert; Kirk I Erickson; Arthur F Kramer; Jeanine M Parisi; Qian-Li Xue; Eriwn J Tan; Elizabeth K Tanner; Alden L Gross; Teresa E Seeman; Tara L Gruenewald; Sylvia McGill; George W Rebok; Linda P Fried

doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2014.12.005

Impact of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial on cortical and hippocampal volumes

Alzheimers Dement. 2015 Nov;11(11):1340-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2014.12.005. Epub 2015 Mar 31.

Authors

Michelle C Carlson¹, Julie H Kuo², Yi-Fang Chuang³, Vijay R Varma⁴, Greg Harris⁵, Marilyn S Albert⁶, Kirk I Erickson⁷, Arthur F Kramer⁸, Jeanine M Parisi⁹, Qian-Li Xue¹⁰, Eriwn J Tan¹¹, Elizabeth K Tanner¹², Alden L Gross¹³, Teresa E Seeman¹⁴, Tara L Gruenewald¹⁵, Sylvia McGill¹⁶, George W Rebok⁴, Linda P Fried¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, and Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁵ Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁶ Department of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁸ Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
⁹ Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹⁰ Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹¹ The Corporation for National and Community Service, Washington, DC, USA.
¹² Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Community-Public Health, The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹³ Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹⁴ Division of Geriatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁶ Greater Homewood Community Corporation, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹⁷ Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.

Abstract

Introduction: There is a substantial interest in identifying interventions that can protect and buffer older adults from atrophy in the cortex and particularly, the hippocampus, a region important to memory. We report the 2-year effects of a randomized controlled trial of an intergenerational social health promotion program on older men's and women's brain volumes.

Methods: The Brain Health Study simultaneously enrolled, evaluated, and randomized 111 men and women (58 interventions; 53 controls) within the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial to evaluate the intervention impact on biomarkers of brain health at baseline and annual follow-ups during the 2-year trial exposure.

Results: Intention-to-treat analyses on cortical and hippocampal volumes for full and sex-stratified samples revealed program-specific increases in volumes that reached significance in men only (P's ≤ .04). Although men in the control arm exhibited age-related declines for 2 years, men in the Experience Corps arm showed a 0.7% to 1.6% increase in brain volumes. Women also exhibited modest intervention-specific gains of 0.3% to 0.54% by the second year of exposure that contrasted with declines of about 1% among women in the control group.

Discussion: These findings showed that purposeful activity embedded within a social health promotion program halted and, in men, reversed declines in brain volume in regions vulnerable to dementia.

Clinical trial registration: NCT0038.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00000038.

Keywords: Brain aging; Cognitive activity; Cortical volume; Hippocampus; MRI; Neuroimaging; Physical activity; Randomized controlled trial; Social activity.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Aged
Aging / pathology*
Aging / physiology
Atrophy / prevention & control
Baltimore
Cerebral Cortex / pathology*
Cerebral Cortex / physiopathology
Female
Health Promotion* / methods
Hippocampus / pathology*
Hippocampus / physiopathology
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Memory Disorders / pathology
Memory Disorders / physiopathology
Memory Disorders / prevention & control
Organ Size
Sex Characteristics
Time Factors
Treatment Outcome
Volunteers

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT00000038

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Associated data

Grants and funding