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60/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 60 out of 100. Prevention trials

Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies

56 individuals (mean (sd) age: 68.8 (4.2) years, 26 females, 24/32 intervention/control group) were included at baseline and 41 returned after an average of 28 months for the second assessment. ECT and FW exhibited stronger decline in the intervention compared to the control group in preregistered models but not when adjusted for baseline differences. All other markers progressed similarly across groups, however sample size was smaller than expected. In exploratory analyses, cerebral blood flow increased more in the intervention group and this change was associated with decreases in systolic blood pressure. In this group of older adults at risk for dementia, we find no conclusive evidence whether a multi-modal lifestyle intervention improves brain imaging markers of neurodegeneration and small vessel disease. Preliminary evidence suggested an association of the intervention, increased cerebral blood flow and systolic blood pressure reductions. ABBREVIATIONS: ECT, entorhinal cortex thickness; FW, free water fraction; WHO, world health organization; AD, Alzheimer's disease; VCI, vascular cognitive impairment; FINGER, Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability; MTL, medial temporal lobe; MIND, Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay diet; cSVD, cerebral small vessel disease; WMH, white matter hyperintensities of presumed vascular origin; PSMD, peak width of the mean diffusivity distribution; WW-FINGERS, world wide FINGER studies; CAIDE, Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Incidence of Dementia; GPP, general practitioner praxis; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; MST, Mnemonic Similarity Test; TE, echo time; TR, repetition time; FA, flip angle; FOV, field of view; GRAPPA, GeneRalized Autocalibrating Partial Parallel Acquisition; CMRR, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research; BOLD, blood oxygenation level dependent; pcASL: pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling; EPI, echo-planar imaging; FLAIR, fluid attenuated inversion recovery; CBF, cerebral blood flow; QA, quality assessment; GM, gray matter; HCV, hippocampal volume; eICV, estimated intracranial volume; DWI, diffusion-weighted imaging; MD, mean diffusivity; FA, fractional anisotropy TBSS: tract-based spatial statistics; CSF, cerebral spinal fluid; ISI, inter-stimulus interval; LDI, lure discrimination index; REC, recognition score; CG, control group; IG, intervention group; MoCA, Montreal Cognitive Assessment; CASMIN, Comparative Analysis of So

Key findings

56 individuals (mean (sd) age: 68.8 (4.2) years, 26 females, 24/32 intervention/control group) were included at baseline and 41 returned after an average of 28 months for the second assessment.
ECT and FW exhibited stronger decline in the intervention compared to the control group in preregistered models but not when adjusted for baseline differences.
All other markers progressed similarly across groups, however sample size was smaller than expected.
In exploratory analyses, cerebral blood flow increased more in the intervention group and this change was associated with decreases in systolic blood pressure.
In this group of older adults at risk for dementia, we find no conclusive evidence whether a multi-modal lifestyle intervention improves brain imaging markers of neurodegeneration and small vessel disease.

Why it matters

In this imaging study of 56 older adults at risk for dementia, there was no conclusive evidence that a multi-modal lifestyle intervention improved brain imaging markers of neurodegeneration and small vessel disease. Exploratory analyses suggested a link between the intervention, increased cerebral blood flow and reductions in systolic blood pressure.

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Study details

Study designrandomized controlled trial
Participants56
Evidence strengthHigh

How this study scored 60/100

Published in a peer-reviewed journal, and it is a randomised controlled trial. Scored zero for effect reported because the record does not state it.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	7 / 10	Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (NeuroImage Clinical)
Journal's citation record	1 / 4	NeuroImage Clinical: journal h-index 133 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29)
Study design	11 / 12	A randomised controlled trial
Strength of evidence	5 / 5	Rated “high” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	4 / 5	2025 — within 3 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size	1 / 4	56 participants
Effect reported	0 / 3	No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people	3 / 3	Studied in people (participant count stated)
Randomised / blinded	1 / 2	Randomised (as stated in the record)
Times cited	1 / 7	Cited 3 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	1 / 5	1.0 citations a year over 3 year(s) since 2025
Impact for its field and year	2 / 6	Cited 1.9× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	0 / 6	No other study in this library cites it
Still being cited	1 / 4	Cited 3 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	3 / 4	Last-listed author A. Veronica Witte: h-index 52 (OpenAlex, whole career)
Institution's track record	2 / 3	Inserm: institution h-index 1,988 (OpenAlex)
Multi-centre collaboration	3 / 3	OpenAlex lists 18 institution(s) in 2 countries
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 40378769)
Free to read	2 / 2	Free to read
Total	60 / 100	—

What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →

Read the original

Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).

Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

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APA 7th

Beyer, F., Kleine, L., Zülke, A. E., Luppa, M., Mildner, T., Gensichen, J. S., et al. (2025). Exploring the effect of multi-modal intervention against cognitive decline on atrophy and small vessel disease imaging markers in the AgeWell.de imaging study. NeuroImage Clinical. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2025.103796

Vancouver

Beyer F, Kleine L, Zülke AE, Luppa M, Mildner T, Gensichen JS, et al. Exploring the effect of multi-modal intervention against cognitive decline on atrophy and small vessel disease imaging markers in the AgeWell.de imaging study. NeuroImage Clinical. 2025. doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2025.103796. PMID: 40378769.

BibTeX

@article{beyer2025-40378769,
  author  = {Beyer, Frauke and Kleine, Lukas and Zülke, Andrea E. and Luppa, Melanie and Mildner, Toralf and Gensichen, Jochen Stefan and Frese, Thomas and Czock, David and others},
  title   = {{Exploring the effect of multi-modal intervention against cognitive decline on atrophy and small vessel disease imaging markers in the AgeWell.de imaging study}},
  journal = {NeuroImage Clinical},
  year    = {2025},
  doi     = {10.1016/j.nicl.2025.103796},
  pmid    = {40378769},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2025.103796}
}

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