A Remotely Coached Multimodal Lifestyle Intervention for Alzheimer’s Disease Ameliorates Functional and Cognitive Outcomes

Abstract

Background: Comprehensive treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) requires not only pharmacologic treatment but also management of existing medical conditions and lifestyle modifications including diet, cognitive training, and exercise. Personalized, multimodal therapies are needed to best prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Objective: The Coaching for Cognition in Alzheimer’s (COCOA) trial was a prospective randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that a remotely coached multimodal lifestyle intervention would improve early-stage AD. Methods: Participants with early-stage AD were randomized into two arms. Arm 1 (N = 24) received standard of care. Arm 2 (N = 31) additionally received telephonic personalized coaching for multiple lifestyle interventions. The primary outcome was a test of the hypothesis that the Memory Performance Index (MPI) change over time would be better in the intervention arm than in the control arm. The Functional Assessment Staging Test was assessed for a secondary outcome. COCOA collected psychometric, clinical, lifestyle, genomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and microbiome data at multiple timepoints (dynamic dense data) across two years for each participant. Results: The intervention arm ameliorated 2.1 [1.0] MPI points (mean [SD], p = 0.016) compared to the control over the two-year intervention. No important adverse events or side effects were observed. Conclusion: Multimodal lifestyle interventions are effective for ameliorating cognitive decline and have a larger effect size than pharmacological interventions. Dietary changes and exercise are likely to be beneficial components of multimodal interventions in many individuals. Remote coaching is an effective intervention for early stage ADRD. Remote interventions were effective during the COVID pandemic.