By Duncan Rinehart, Ph.D.
This is really encouraging news! About 1 in 10 men and about 1 in 5 women aged 65 and older are projected to develop Alzheimer’s dementia in their lifetime according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Alzheimer’s and related dementia are feared illnesses of older adults. Yet, a recent two-year long study reported in a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) finds that health coaching can be effective in reducing the risk factors for Alzheimer’s and for increasing cognition and quality of life for seniors. Read on to learn more.
Key findings
One-hundred and seventy-two adults aged 70 to 89 years old who were at high risk for dementia were randomly assigned into two groups. One group received health coaching to reduce their risk. The other group received educational materials about Alzheimer’s and dementia risk reduction. The group that received coaching had:
74% greater increase in cognition (verbal memory, attention span, language fluency) than the other group,
a better quality of life based on physical, mental and social health, and on reported pain and fatigue,
roughly 145% improvement in their risk factor profile including improvements in their sleep, depressive symptoms, diabetes control, and social satisfaction.
Some interesting details
The risk factors included physical inactivity, uncontrolled hypertension, poor sleep, uncontrolled diabetes, high depression symptoms, and social isolation. Physical inactivity accounted for 80% of the risk while poor sleep and uncontrolled hypertension accounted for 49% each. All participants had at least two risk factors.
Coaching was done mostly by phone and focused on a participant’s risk factors though they could work on other health goals such as diet and cognitive activity. Coaches helped participants set specific goals that they were interested in working on and reviewed those goals with each coaching meeting. Once a goal was reached, participants set a new goal for another risk factor. In this way, coaching was personalized, and patient centered.
Why this is important
Dementia and many of the diseases affecting seniors are influenced by our lifestyles. “A large body of literature has demonstrated that health coaching is effective in the adoption of healthy behaviors, improves measures of health, and reduces health care utilization” NIH. Changing one’s diet, getting more exercise, losing weight, lowering blood pressure, and controlling diabetes can be difficult lifestyle changes to make and sustain on one’s own. Health and wellness coaching effectively helps us make lasting lifestyle changes.
Final words
My dad died of Alzheimer’s. I may not be able to do much about any risk of developing this disease that I inherited from him. But I can do a great deal about many other factors, which have to do with my lifestyle, that can influence how my genes behave and thereby reduce the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s.
This randomized clinical trial provides encouraging evidence that health and wellness coaching can be an effective intervention with Alzheimer’s and related dementia.