Using Technology to Promote Mental Acuity

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania (Other)
• Overall Status: Completed
• CT.gov ID: NCT01126021
• Collaborator: Carnegie Mellon University (Other)
• Enrollment: 600
• Locations: 2
• Arms: 4
• Duration (Months): 22
• Patients Per Site: 300
• Patients Per Site Per Month: 13.6

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

The study plans to test the effectiveness of behavioral economics based incentives to promote the daily use of computer programs designed to improve memory and mental acuity. Subjects will be recruited from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The primary objective is to determine the impact of structured financial incentives on the number of computer-based cognitive exercises completed during a 3 month intervention period.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Mental Acuity	Behavioral: Financial incentives; Behavioral: No incentives	Phase 2/Phase 3

Study Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Actual Enrollment: 600 participants
• Allocation: Randomized
• Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)
• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Official Title: Using Technology to Promote Mental Acuity
• Study Start Date: May 1, 2010
• Actual Primary Completion Date: Sep 1, 2011
• Actual Study Completion Date: Mar 1, 2012

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Active Comparator: Control Given access to mental exercises but receives no rewards for use.	Behavioral: No incentives; Participants will be given training and access to the software to participate in mental exercises but will not be given financial incentives for participation.
Experimental: Atomistic Each individual is awarded for his or her individual participation	Behavioral: Financial incentives; Participants are eligible for incentives if they participate in at least 30 games per day.
Experimental: Altruistic Participants are paired and rewarded according to the other individual's participation.	Behavioral: Financial incentives; Participants are eligible for incentives if they participate in at least 30 games per day.
Experimental: Team-based Teams compete against each other and receive rewards according to relative participation.	Behavioral: Financial incentives; Participants are eligible for incentives if they participate in at least 30 games per day.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

1. Number of activities completed [6 weeks]

   The number of memory and cognition enhancement activities played per day using the study provided software will be measured.

2. Performance on activities completed [6 weeks]

   Performance is measured by a scoring algorithm designed to estimate levels of memory, attention, cognitive control and processing speed.

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 55 Years to 80 Years
• Sexes Eligible for Study: All
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Inclusion Criteria:

• 55-80 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unable to read or understand the informed consent form

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	United States	19104
2	Carnegie Mellon University	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania	United States	15213

Sponsors and Collaborators

• University of Pennsylvania
• Carnegie Mellon University

Investigators

None specified.

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Additional Information:

• LDI Center for Health Incentives

Publications

None provided.

• Responsible Party: University of Pennsylvania
• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01126021
• Other Study ID Numbers: HS09-634
• First Posted: May 19, 2010
• Last Update Posted: Dec 2, 2016
• Last Verified: Dec 1, 2016

• Keywords provided by University of Pennsylvania: Senior citizens; mental acuity; memory

Study Results

No Results Posted as of Dec 2, 2016