How to perform a general population‐based recruitment strategy for a multidomain intervention trial for dementia prevention—the CITA GO‐ON trial experience

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundFINGER trial has demonstrated the potential for dementia prevention by targeting different lifestyle domains in older adults. It highlighted the importance of selecting the correct window of opportunity for preventive actions by including participants at high risk of dementia. This approach is being tested worldwide to support future public health interventions, where the selection of the appropriate target population is crucial. Here we share our approach and results in recruiting older adults with increased dementia risk and cognitive frailty from the general population for the CITA Go‐On trial.MethodCITA GO‐ON is a single‐center randomized controlled trial in which non‐demented‐adults between 60‐80y will be allocated to receive standard care or a risk factor control and lifestyle‐based multidomain intervention. It replicates FINGER trial inclusion criteria, but the recruitment strategy is based on the community level in Gipuzkoa (Spain) instead of a previous health registry. Together with press and social media releases, mailing, and small group talks, the main recruitment strategy has been coordinated with local governments. Interested people fulfill an online form that allows identifying those who meet the pre‐established requirements (CAIDE dementia risk score ≥6) prior to attending an individualized face‐to‐face cognitive screening visit (evaluation of exclusion criteria and brief cognitive testing).ResultBy December 2022, we have reached and informed about the trial more 24000 people including all citizens older than 60 in three small municipalities in collaboration with the local town halls. Of these, 1919 completed the pre‐screening questionnaire using REDCap, 868 were screened and 450 recruited (mean age: 68,57 (6,58), 50,87% female, and mean CAIDE: 7,49 (1,39)). In person calculated (mean (sd): 6,98 (1,70)) and self‐reported (mean (sd): 7,23 (1,77)) CAIDE score is similar (p = 0,062) in our experience. Table 1 resumes age, sex, CAIDE and MMSE of the interested sample. Recruitment period is still opened.ConclusionCITA GO‐ON recruitment is a multi‐disciplinary population oriented efficient strategy to identify adults at high risk of dementia understanding and willing to participate in a multi‐modal intervention prevention trial. It allows to select candidates from the whole population, and not only those linked to specialized health care systems or registries.