MINDSpeed Food and Brain Training RCT

Adults with low education who give informed consent will complete a baseline cognitive assessment and then be randomized to one of four arms: 1) MIND foods and cognitive training, 2) MIND foods and control training, 3) control foods and cognitive training, or 4) control foods and control training.

All interventions are conducted through applications running on a tablet computer device that we will provide to all participants for the study duration. Cognitive training is delivered through the online BrainHQ program from Posit Science, Inc. The foods will be shown on the tablet device in an online shopping format. Selected foods will be prepared and delivered by the study team.

Active intervention will last for 12 weeks. After the 12-weeks, free food deliveries will cease but participants who were allocated to cognitive training will continue to have access to BrainHQ. Those in the MIND food arms will be encouraged to maintain MIND food consumption.

Inclusion criteria

• age 60 years or older,
• ≤ 12 years of education,
• English speaking,
• Marion County (and immediately surrounding counties) resident, with steady/fixed residence to receive food deliveries
• natural-born US citizen.

Exclusion criteria

• living in nursing home
• self-reported diagnosis of dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD), cancer with short life expectancy, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Parkinson disease; current chemotherapy or radiation therapy; history of brain tumor, brain surgery, brain infection; stroke or myocardial infarction within the past 12 months
• current alcohol consumption ≥8 drinks per week for women or ≥15 drinks per week for men;
• poor vision (self-reported difficulty reading a newspaper) or color blind;
• low communicative ability (examiner rated) that would interfere with interventions and assessments;
• prior involvement in similar cognitive training studies;
• unable or unwilling to provide blood sample at Baseline
• tumor, hemorrhage, aneurysm, hydrocephalus, or other significant clinical finding from Baseline brain MRI