The current study will examine the impact of frequent social interaction through communication technologies during COVID-19 pandemic in the cognitive status of socially-isolated older adults with and without cognitive impairment. Patients will take place in an experimental crossover study, participants will complete one month of an intervention and one month of as passive control. The goal of this study is to determine: A.) if frequent social interaction through ICT during COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant positive impact in cognitive performance on testing, and B.) how social isolation and cognitive status influence misconceptions around the current pandemic.
The current study will examine the impact of frequent social interaction through
communication technologies during COVID-19 pandemic in the cognitive status of
socially-isolated older adults with and without cognitive impairment. An estimated 150 total
participants will be recruited over the course of 1 year: 50 healthy older participants, 50
patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and 50 patients with mild AD.
This study employs an AB/BA crossover design (2-sequence, 2-period, 2-treatment design) where
A will be the intervention phase and B will be the passive control phase. Each period will
occur over a duration of 1 month. Participants will either receive an intervention designed
to provide participants with more social interaction during a time of social distancing and
highly limited in-person social interactions (Intervention Group) or will not receive the
intervention (Control Group). The investigators will conduct pre- and post-
neuropsychological testing to assess changes in cognitive status (e.g., memory, language,
executive functioning) in the intervention group after each intervention phase.
Neuropsychological tests assessing changes to cognition will be completed prior to
participant assignment to the Intervention or Control Group. Following this assessment, the
first phase of the intervention will begin, and the initial intervention group (Group A) will
receive the intervention, and the other group (Group B) will act as a control group. After
the intervention phase has ended, both groups will be assessed again using neuropsychological
tests. Following the re-assessment, Group B will receive the intervention, and Group A will
act as a control. After the second intervention phase has ended, both groups will be assessed
once more using neuropsychological tests.
Behavioral: Technology based social interactions
Participants will be socially interacting using any available technology with members of the research team.
Other: No research related technology based social interactions
No technology based social interactions with the research team.
Inclusion Criteria:
- Recent diagnosis from the Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center of mild AD
(with a recent Mini Mental State Examination score greater than 20)
- Meet criteria for social isolation- a state in which an individual has a minimal
number of social contacts and lacks engagement with others either physically or
remotely through communication technology.
- English as their primary language
- Have access to either a computer, smart device, or telephone
Exclusion Criteria:
- Clinically significant depression
- Alcohol or drug use
- Cerebrovascular disease, traumatic brain damage, other degenerative disease (e.g.,
Parkinson's disease)
- Do not have corrected vision of 20/30 or better
- perform below 80% correct on the speech discrimination test from the Boston Diagnostic
Aphasia Examination
- Score below 27 on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)
- Score below two standard deviations on any element of the Consortium to Establish a
Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) Word List Memory test
Boston University Alzheimer Disease Center
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Andrew E Busdon, MD, Principal Investigator
Professor of Neurology at BU School of Medicine