A peer support dietary change intervention for encouraging adoption and maintenance of the Mediterranean diet in a non-Mediterranean population (TEAM-MED): lessons learned and suggested improvements

Appleton, Katherine; McEvoy, Claire; Lloydwin, Christina; Moore, Sarah E. H.; Salamanca, Patricia; Cupples, Margaret; Hunter, Steven; Kee, Frank; McCance, David R.; McKinley, M. C.; Woodside, Jayne V.

doi:10.1017/jns.2023.2

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A previous study in the UK evaluating the feasibility of a peer support intervention to encourage adoption of a MD reported challenges with recruitment and retention of participants (33,34). The successful recruitment and retention in the current study may be due to the use of individual-level recruitment, rather than the group-based approaches employed in the previous study, which may have ensured the inclusion of more engaged participants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Feasibility, acceptability, and cognitive benefits of a theory-informed intervention to increase Mediterranean diet adherence and physical activity in older adults at risk of dementia: the MedEx-UK randomised controlled trial

Jennings

Shannon²,

Gillings

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Despite an urgent need for multi-domain lifestyle interventions to reduce dementia risk there is a lack of interventions which are informed by theory and evidence based behaviour change strategies and no interventions in this domain have investigated the feasibility or effectiveness of behaviour change maintenance. Objectives: We tested the feasibility, acceptability, and cognitive effects of MedEx-UK, a personalised theory-based 24-week intervention to improve Mediterranean-diet (MD) adherence alone, or in combination with physical activity (PA), in older-adults at risk of dementia, defined using a cardiovascular risk-score of >10%. Design: 104 participants (74% female, 57 to 76 years) were randomised to three parallel intervention arms: 1) control, 2) MD, or 3) MD+PA for 24-weeks and invited to an additional 24-week follow-up period with no active intervention. Behaviour change was supported using personalised targets, a web-based intervention, group sessions and food provision. Results: The intervention was feasible and acceptable with the intended number of at risk participants completing the study. Participant engagement with group sessions and food provision components was high. There was improved MD adherence in the two MD groups compared with control at 24-weeks (3.7 points on a 14-point scale (95% CI 2.9, 4.5, p <0.01) and 48-weeks (2.7 points (95% CI 1.6, 3.7) p<0.01). Intervention did not change objectively measured PA. Improvements in general cognition (0.22 (95% CI 0.05, 0.35, p =0.01), memory (0.31 (95% CI 0.10, 0.51, p <0.01), and select cardiovascular outcomes captured as underpinning physiological mechanisms were observed in the MD groups at 24-weeks. Conclusion: The intervention was successful in initiating and maintaining dietary behaviour change for up to 12-months, which was likely due to the intense early support provided which resulted in cognitive benefits. These results will inform larger-scale complex behaviour change interventions with health and well-being endpoints.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Feasibility, acceptability, and cognitive benefits of a theory-informed intervention to increase Mediterranean diet adherence and physical activity in older adults at risk of dementia: the MedEx-UK randomised controlled trial

Jennings

Shannon²,

Gillings

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Effectiveness and feasibility of a theory-informed intervention to improve Mediterranean diet adherence, physical activity and cognition in older adults at risk of dementia: the MedEx-UK randomised controlled trial

Jennings,

Shannon,

Gillings

et al. 2024

BMC Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Despite an urgent need for multi-domain lifestyle interventions to reduce dementia risk, there is a lack of interventions which are informed by theory- and evidence-based behaviour change strategies, and no interventions in this domain have investigated the feasibility or effectiveness of behaviour change maintenance. We tested the feasibility, acceptability and cognitive effects of a personalised theory-based 24-week intervention to improve Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence alone, or in combination with physical activity (PA), in older-adults at risk of dementia, defined using a cardiovascular risk score. Methods Participants (n = 104, 74% female, 57–76 years) were randomised to three parallel intervention arms: (1) control, (2) MD, or (3) MD + PA for 24 weeks and invited to an optional 24-week follow-up period with no active intervention. Behaviour change was supported using personalised targets, a web-based intervention, group sessions and food provision. The primary outcome was behaviour change (MD adherence and PA levels), and the secondary outcomes included feasibility and acceptability, cognitive function, cardiometabolic health (BMI and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure) and process measures. Results The intervention was feasible and acceptable with the intended number of participants completing the study. Participant engagement with group sessions and food provision components was high. There was improved MD adherence in the two MD groups compared with control at 24 weeks (3.7 points on a 14-point scale (95% CI 2.9, 4.5) and 48 weeks (2.7 points (95% CI 1.6, 3.7)). The intervention did not significantly change objectively measured PA. Improvements in general cognition (0.22 (95% CI 0.05, 0.35), memory (0.31 (95% CI 0.10, 0.51) and select cardiovascular outcomes captured as underpinning physiological mechanisms were observed in the MD groups at 24 weeks. Conclusions The intervention was successful in initiating and maintaining dietary behaviour change for up to 12 months which resulted in cognitive benefits. It provides a framework for future complex behaviour change interventions with a range of health and well-being endpoints. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03673722.

show abstract

Anonymous, Chat-based Peer Support Reduces Loneliness in Older Adults (Preprint)

Kilby¹,

Zhang²,

Nagra³

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BACKGROUND Older adults have a high rate of loneliness which contributes to increased medical morbidity and mortality. Peer support interventions combine persons with a similar struggle or condition to create an environment of mutual support and have demonstrated positive benefits across a broad range of medical conditions and demographics. OBJECTIVE This case study describes the experience of a cohort of over 700 adults aged 65 years and older who engaged at least once in anonymous, chat-based, digital peer support to determine if participation led to measurable change in certain emotions. METHODS Chat narratives from peer conversations were analyzed to produce a quantitative measure of change in emotion (loneliness, stress, sadness, anger, and optimism) using a third-party public sentiment analysis natural language processing model. Sentiment analysis evaluated each user’s chat messages in temporal order and then normalized across various interaction lengths and reconstructed to produce a collective trend for each emotion. RESULTS As the chat progressed, there was a collective decrease in all variables, including loneliness, anger, sadness, and stress with a corresponding increase in optimism. CONCLUSIONS Chat-based peer support may be a viable intervention to help address loneliness in older adults and presents an alternative to traditional care. This form of peer support may also be an option to address anger, sadness, and stress. These are promising, hypothesis-generating results that, given the simplicity and scale of the intervention, support the need for further study in this area to expand the evidence for such cost-effective options available to address loneliness among populations of elderly adults. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

show abstract

A peer support dietary change intervention for encouraging adoption and maintenance of the Mediterranean diet in a non-Mediterranean population (TEAM-MED): lessons learned and suggested improvements

Cited by 3 publications

References 53 publications

Feasibility, acceptability, and cognitive benefits of a theory-informed intervention to increase Mediterranean diet adherence and physical activity in older adults at risk of dementia: the MedEx-UK randomised controlled trial

Feasibility, acceptability, and cognitive benefits of a theory-informed intervention to increase Mediterranean diet adherence and physical activity in older adults at risk of dementia: the MedEx-UK randomised controlled trial

Effectiveness and feasibility of a theory-informed intervention to improve Mediterranean diet adherence, physical activity and cognition in older adults at risk of dementia: the MedEx-UK randomised controlled trial

Anonymous, Chat-based Peer Support Reduces Loneliness in Older Adults (Preprint)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About