The MEDITAGING study: protocol of a two-armed randomized controlled study to compare the effects of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program against a health promotion program in older migrants in Luxembourg.

BACKGROUND: Migration is a phenomenon worldwide, with older migrants, particularly those with fewer socioeconomic resources, having an increased risk of developing adverse cognitive and health outcomes and social isolation. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to validate interventions that promote healthy aging in this population. Previous studies have shown a positive impact of mindfulness based-stress reduction (MBSR) on outcomes such as cognition and sleep. However, only a few studies verified its potential in older adults, especially with vulnerable populations such as migrants. This article presents the protocol of the MEDITAGING study, which is the first to investigate the MBSR effects in migrants aged ≥55 in comparison to a health promotion program. METHODS: MEDITAGING is a two-arm randomized, double-blinded, controlled study, which will include older Portuguese-speaking migrants (n = 90). Participants are randomized to the MBSR or a health promotion program. Both interventions are conducted in groups over a total of 8 weeks, incorporating weekly meetings, an additional 4-hour class, and extra at-home tasks. The health promotion program has the same structure as the MBSR but comprises different activities related to dementia prevention, healthy habits, cognitive stimulation, sleeping, nutrition, watercolor painting, and physical activity. The assessment of executive functioning, physiological stress measures, self-reported questionnaires, and qualitative interviews are conducted at baseline, after 8 weeks (post-intervention), and at a follow-up session (from one to 3 months thereafter). Analyzes will be conducted using a modified intention-to-treat approach (all participants with at least 3 days of participation in the group-sessions and one post-intervention observation). DISCUSSION: This study will test effects of a mindfulness-based intervention against an active control condition in older adult migrants, which few studies have addressed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05615337 (date of registration: 27 September 2022; date of record verification: 14 November 2022).

Examining the effects of emotional valence and arousal on source memory: A meta-analysis of behavioral evidence.

The current meta-analysis examined the effects of valence and arousal on source memory accuracy, including the identification of variables that moderate the magnitude and direction of those effects. Fifty-three studies, comprising 85 individual experiments (N = 3,040 participants), were selected. Three separate analyses focusing on valence effects (valence-based: negative-neutral; positive-neutral; negative-positive) and other three focusing exclusively on arousal (arousal-based: high-low; medium-low; high-medium) were considered. Effect sizes varied from very small to medium. For the valence-based analyses, source memory accuracy was impaired for emotional compared with neutral stimuli (dunb = -.14 for negative-neutral; dunb = -.11 for positive-neutral), with a similar performance found for the negative-positive comparison (dunb = -.04). In the case of arousal-based analyses, source memory was improved for stimuli with high and medium arousal versus low arousal (dunb = .27, dunb = .49, respectively), with no statistically significant difference between high and medium arousal stimuli (dunb = -.12). Emotion effects on source memory were modulated by methodological factors. These factors may account for the variety findings typically found in emotion-related source memory research and could be systematically addressed in future studies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Prevalence of dementia in Latin America and Caribbean countries: Systematic review and meta-analyses exploring age, sex, rurality, and education as possible determinants.

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that the prevalence of dementia in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) may be higher than in high-income countries. Thus, we sought to systematically analyse the prevalence of dementia and explore possible drivers that lead to this disparity in LAC countries. METHOD: We searched Pubmed, Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Lilacs, and SciELO for studies on dementia in LAC countries published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Random-effects model was applied. RESULTS: Thirty-one studies from 17 LAC countries were included. Pooled prevalence of all-cause dementia was 10.66%. Further analyses with studies providing raw prevalence by sex, area, and educational level showed a higher prevalence for women (8.97%) than for men (7.26%). Also, dementia prevalence was higher for rural than urban residents (7.71% vs 8.68%, respectively). Participants without formal education presented more than double the prevalence of dementia (21.37%) compared to those with at least one year of formal education (9.88%). Studies with more recent data collection showed higher dementia prevalence. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest a high global dementia prevalence in LAC countries and an unequal burden of dementia for women, lower-educated, and rural residents. Secular increases in dementia prevalence call for greater public health efforts for preventative actions.

Working Memory Training Coupled With Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Experiment.

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been employed to boost working memory training (WMT) effects. Nevertheless, there is limited evidence on the efficacy of this combination in older adults. The present study is aimed to assess the delayed transfer effects of tDCS coupled with WMT in older adults in a 15-day follow-up. We explored if general cognitive ability, age, and educational level predicted the effects. Methods: In this single-center, double-blind randomized sham-controlled experiment, 54 older adults were randomized into three groups: anodal-tDCS (atDCS)+WMT, sham-tDCS (stDCS)+WMT, and double-sham. Five sessions of tDCS (2 mA) were applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Far transfer was measured by Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM), while the near transfer effects were assessed through Digit Span. A frequentist linear mixed model (LMM) was complemented by a Bayesian approach in data analysis. Results: Working memory training improved dual n-back performance in both groups submitted to this intervention but only the group that received atDCS+WMT displayed a significant improvement from pretest to follow-up in transfer measures of reasoning (RAPM) and short-term memory (forward Digit Span). Near transfer improvements predicted gains in far transfer, demonstrating that the far transfer is due to an improvement in the trained construct of working memory. Age, formal education, and vocabulary score seem to predict the gains in reasoning. However, Bayesian results do not provide substantial evidence to support this claim. Conclusion: This study will help to consolidate the incipient but auspicious field of cognitive training coupled with tDCS in healthy older adults. Our findings demonstrated that atDCS may potentialize WMT by promoting transfer effects in short-term memory and reasoning in older adults, which are observed especially at follow-up.

HPV-related quality of life in diagnosed women: A longitudinal study.

This paper explored changes in the HPV-related quality of life (QoL) of 209 women diagnosed with human papillomavirus (HPV) during 1 year of medical monitoring, at three time points (6-month interval between them). Participants completed the HPV Impact Profile (HIP) questionnaire to assess HPV-related QoL. The relationship between HIP scores and time was moderated by the HPV risk type and infection duration: an HPV diagnosis had a stronger negative effect on patients with an HPV high-risk type and on those living with HPV for a long period of time. Age, condom use, motherhood, and type of family were significant predictors.

Probing the relationship between late endogenous ERP components with fluid intelligence in healthy older adults.

The world population is rapidly aging, bringing together the necessity to better understand the advancing age. This characterization may be used to aid early diagnosis and to guide individually-tailored interventions. While some event-related potential (ERP) components, such as the P300 and late positive complex (LPC), have been associated with fluid intelligence (Gf) in young population; little is known whether these associations hold for older people. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to assess whether these ERP components are associated with Gf in the elderly. Fifty-seven older adults performed a continuous performance task (CPT) and a visual oddball paradigm while EEG was recorded. Participants were divided into two groups, according to their performance in the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices test: high-performance (HP) and low-performance (LP). Results showed that the HP group, compared to the LP group, had higher LPC amplitudes in the CPT and shorter P300 latencies in the oddball task, highlighting the role of ERP components as a potential electrophysiological proxy of Gf abilities in the elderly.

Reviewing working memory training gains in healthy older adults: A meta-analytic review of transfer for cognitive outcomes.

The objective of this meta-analytic review was to systematically assess the effects of working memory training on healthy older adults. We identified 552 entries, of which 27 experiments met our inclusion criteria. The final database included 1130 participants. Near- and far-transfer effects were analysed with measures of short-term memory, working memory, and reasoning. Small significant and long-lasting transfer gains were observed in working memory tasks. Effects on reasoning was very small and only marginally significant. The effects of working memory training on both near and far transfer in older adults were moderated by the type of training tasks; the adopted outcome measures; the training duration; and the total number of training hours. In this review, we provide an updated review of the literature in the field by carrying out a robust multi-level meta-analysis focused exclusively on working memory training in healthy older adults. Recommendations for future research are suggested.