SMART trial to study dementia risk reduction
The Australian Study of Mental Activity and Regular Training (SMART) trial into the prevention of memory decline in older people at risk of developing dementia will begin this week.
The SMART trial conducted by a group of Australian medical researchers, will lead the world in targeting new strategies for dementia risk reduction.
“It will determine whether mental and physical exercise interventions can reduce the risk of older people developing dementia, who have borderline cognitive functioning”, Dr Michael Valenzuela, a clinical neuroscience research fellow, School of Psychiatry, University of NSW, said.
Glenn Rees, national executive director of Alzheimer’s Australia, said the trial was a significant step globally in establishing medically proven links between lifestyle and dementia.
The trial will also assess whether benefits to mental function are a result of changes in the brain structure and function, or due to alterations to body metabolism, biochemistry and immune function.
Researchers from the University of Sydney, the University of NSW and James Cook University have been awarded nearly $1 million AUD by the National Health & Medical Research Council to conduct the SMART trial.
This study is led by Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh from the University of Sydney, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of NSW (Dr Michael Valenzuela, Professor Henry Brodaty, Professor Perminder Sachdev, Dr Wei Wen), University of Sydney (Associate Professor Nalin Singh), and James Cook University (Professor Bernhard Baune).
