Uptake and effectiveness of a tailor-made online lifestyle advice for Dementia Risk Reduction

Introduction: Increase in life expectancy will lead to an absolute increase in the prevalence of dementia the coming years. As no curative treatments for dementia are yet available, prevention is a key element to counteract the dementia epidemic. Having a parent with recently diagnosed dementia might encourage people to participate in a lifestyle program to get insight in their risk and protective factors for dementia and improve their health behavior. Our aim is to investigate the uptake and effectiveness of a tailor-made lifestyle program targeting risk and protective factors for dementia, consisting of an online questionnaire, physical examination at one of the participating memory clinics and online tailor-made lifestyle advice for dementia risk reduction among middle-aged descendants of people with recently diagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or Vascular dementia (VD).

Methods and analysis: Cluster randomized controlled trial, in which memory clinics throughout the Netherlands (≥ 20) are randomized to an active or passive recruitment strategy. The difference in uptake (e.g. percentage of eligible people that completed the first assessment) between the passive (poster and flyer in waiting room of memory clinic) and active (personal invitation by the medical doctor of their parent, next to the poster and flyer) recruitment strategy will be evaluated. Additionally, the effectiveness of this tailor-made lifestyle program on protective and risk factors for dementia between participants of the program (aged 40-60 years) and a matched (using propensity scores) control group, consisting of Lifelines participants (non-exposed to the tailor-made lifestyle program) will be investigated.

Ethics and dissemination: This study is approved by the Dutch ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport according to the population screening act (see: https://www.gezondheidsraad.nl/sites/default/files/grpublication/summary_population_screening_act_study_of_online_lifestyle_advice_for_reducing_the_risk_of_dementia_201809.pdf).

To investigate the uptake and effectiveness of a Dementia Risk Reduction Online lifestyle Program among middle-aged descendants of people with recently diagnosed AD or VD at participating Dutch memory clinics.

Participants are asked (by email or SMS, depending on their preference) to complete online questionnaires at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after baseline assessment (online baseline questionnaire). After each follow up measurement, the personal health profile is updated providing the participants with new tailored computerized lifestyle advice. At baseline and 12 months follow-up, participants will be invited at the memory clinic for physical examination.

This study is a cluster randomized controlled trial in which participating memory clinics (≥ 20) in the Netherlands will be randomized into a passive or active recruitment strategy. Memory clinics allocated to the passive recruitment strategy, do not invite individuals actively, but individuals are invited to participate in the Dementia Risk Reduction Online Lifestyle Program only by posters and leaflets that are placed in the waiting room of the memory clinic. Memory clinics allocated to the active recruitment strategy will invite potential participants face-to-face by the medical specialist of their parent to participate in the Dementia Risk Reduction Online Lifestyle Program, during the second consultation after receiving the diagnoses AD or VD, next to posters and leaflets that are placed in the waiting room of the memory clinic. All patients (and their caregivers) receive an envelope addressed to the adult children of patients, including a standard leaflet with information about the content of the study. Participants recruited via both recruitment strategies will receive the same Dementia Risk Reduction Online Lifestyle Program.