Continuing education for the prevention of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia: a systematic review and overview of systematic reviews

Objective To summarise evidence on the preventive effects of continuing education on mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia in adults 45 years or older.Design Systematic review and overview of systematic reviews.Data sources We systematically searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Coch...

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Main Authors: Nina Matyas, Filiz Keser Aschenberger, Gernot Wagner, Stefanie Auer, Christoph Gisinger, Monika Kil, Irma Klerings
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2019-07-01
Series:BMJ Open
Online Access:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/7/e027719.full
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author Nina Matyas
Filiz Keser Aschenberger
Gernot Wagner
Stefanie Auer
Christoph Gisinger
Monika Kil
Irma Klerings
author_facet Nina Matyas
Filiz Keser Aschenberger
Gernot Wagner
Stefanie Auer
Christoph Gisinger
Monika Kil
Irma Klerings
author_sort Nina Matyas
collection DOAJ
description Objective To summarise evidence on the preventive effects of continuing education on mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia in adults 45 years or older.Design Systematic review and overview of systematic reviews.Data sources We systematically searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Scopus for published studies and grey literature databases for unpublished studies from January 1990 to April 2018.Methods To assess evidence directly addressing our objectives, we conducted a systematic review. Because we were aware of a dearth of direct evidence, we also performed an overview of systematic reviews on leisure activities that mimic formal continuing education. We a priori established the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Two authors independently assessed inclusion and exclusion at the abstract and full-text level, rated the risk of bias, and determined the certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation. We resolved all discrepancies by consensus. We synthesised the available evidence narratively.Results Our searches identified 4933 citations. For the systematic review, only two publications on the same prospective cohort study (Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project) met the inclusion criteria; for the overview of reviews, we included five systematic reviews. Based on 459 participants, preliminary data of the ongoing cohort study indicated that cognitive reserve statistically significantly increased in persons attending university classes compared with the control group (92.5% vs 55.7%, p<0.01). Likewise, language processing capacities statistically significantly improved (p<0.01). Episodic memory, working memory and executive function did not differ significantly between groups. Systematic reviews consistently reported a positive association between participation in cognitively stimulating leisure activities and reduced incidence of dementia and improved cognitive test performance.Conclusion Available results demonstrate that cognitive reserve increases through continuing education and show a positive association of cognitive leisure activities with both improved cognitive function and lower dementia incidence.PROSPERO registration number CRD42017063944.
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spelling doaj-art-5b76a815afd64ec9a066edd7fc6808682025-08-20T02:22:25ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552019-07-019710.1136/bmjopen-2018-027719Continuing education for the prevention of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia: a systematic review and overview of systematic reviewsNina Matyas0Filiz Keser Aschenberger1Gernot Wagner2Stefanie Auer3Christoph Gisinger4Monika Kil5Irma Klerings6Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Donau-Universitat Krems, Krems, AustriaDepartment for Continuing Education Research and Educational Management, Donau-Universitat Krems, Krems, AustriaDepartment for Evidence-based Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Donau-Universitat Krems, Krems, AustriaDepartment for Clinical Neurosciences and Preventive Medicine, Donau-Universitat Krems, Krems, AustriaCenter for Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Nursing, Donau-Universitat Krems, Krems, AustriaDepartment for Continuing Education Research and Educational Management, Donau-Universitat Krems, Krems, AustriaDepartment for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, Danube University Krems, Krems, AustriaObjective To summarise evidence on the preventive effects of continuing education on mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia in adults 45 years or older.Design Systematic review and overview of systematic reviews.Data sources We systematically searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Scopus for published studies and grey literature databases for unpublished studies from January 1990 to April 2018.Methods To assess evidence directly addressing our objectives, we conducted a systematic review. Because we were aware of a dearth of direct evidence, we also performed an overview of systematic reviews on leisure activities that mimic formal continuing education. We a priori established the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Two authors independently assessed inclusion and exclusion at the abstract and full-text level, rated the risk of bias, and determined the certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation. We resolved all discrepancies by consensus. We synthesised the available evidence narratively.Results Our searches identified 4933 citations. For the systematic review, only two publications on the same prospective cohort study (Tasmanian Healthy Brain Project) met the inclusion criteria; for the overview of reviews, we included five systematic reviews. Based on 459 participants, preliminary data of the ongoing cohort study indicated that cognitive reserve statistically significantly increased in persons attending university classes compared with the control group (92.5% vs 55.7%, p<0.01). Likewise, language processing capacities statistically significantly improved (p<0.01). Episodic memory, working memory and executive function did not differ significantly between groups. Systematic reviews consistently reported a positive association between participation in cognitively stimulating leisure activities and reduced incidence of dementia and improved cognitive test performance.Conclusion Available results demonstrate that cognitive reserve increases through continuing education and show a positive association of cognitive leisure activities with both improved cognitive function and lower dementia incidence.PROSPERO registration number CRD42017063944.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/7/e027719.full
spellingShingle Nina Matyas
Filiz Keser Aschenberger
Gernot Wagner
Stefanie Auer
Christoph Gisinger
Monika Kil
Irma Klerings
Continuing education for the prevention of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia: a systematic review and overview of systematic reviews
BMJ Open
title Continuing education for the prevention of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia: a systematic review and overview of systematic reviews
title_full Continuing education for the prevention of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia: a systematic review and overview of systematic reviews
title_fullStr Continuing education for the prevention of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia: a systematic review and overview of systematic reviews
title_full_unstemmed Continuing education for the prevention of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia: a systematic review and overview of systematic reviews
title_short Continuing education for the prevention of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s-type dementia: a systematic review and overview of systematic reviews
title_sort continuing education for the prevention of mild cognitive impairment and alzheimer s type dementia a systematic review and overview of systematic reviews
url https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/7/e027719.full
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