Brain Bootcamp Frontiers: a behaviour change intervention targeting dementia risk and cognition for rural and remote older adults

Brain Bootcamp Frontiers is a lifestyle intervention targeting behaviour change for multiple dementia risk factors. Specifically we are targeting diet, physical activity, social connections and cognitive stimulation. This will be completed in three ways: 1) Appraisal of their existing performance as identified through our brain health survey and cognition assessment; 2) Goal-setting techniques and suggestions: This involves providing participants with an information booklet of suggestions/activities on how to adopt a brain healthier lifestyle within their Frontiers box that is delivered to their door upon completion of the online survey. Within the booklet there will also be removable, paper-based, goal planning, goal tracking and evaluation sheets for them to use across the course of the 9 month intervention. These materials have been designed specifically for the Frontiers study. Instructions on how to use the goal planner, goal tracker and information booklet are also provided and encourage the participant to set one goal each week. It will take participants approximately 5 minutes to set a goal each week and 10 minutes at the end of every 3 months to fill out their evaluation sheet. This goal should be focused on one targeted lifestyle factor e.g., diet, physical activity, cognitive stimulation and social activity. The goal planner reminds participants to make sure they are changing the focus of their goal to different lifestyle factors each week. Participants will be asked to send their goal planning and tracking sheets back to the researchers using the reply paid envelope included in their Frontiers box to allow researchers to monitor adherence to the program. At the end of every 3 months they will be asked to complete an online survey of their brain health and be provided with a summary of how they have progressed via email. 3) Cued physical prompts for them to use to support behaviour change; This involves providing participants with a physical items that represent each of the lifestyle factors within the Frontiers box. These materials have been designed specifically for the Frontiers study. For diet there is olive oil to prompt them towards a Mediterranean way of eating; for cognitive stimulation there is a set of brain teaser cards; for physical activity, there is a pedometer; and for social activity there are dates for holidays and national days to celebrate and suggestions for remaining socially active. There is a removable, paper-based evaluation sheet included in the information booklet at the end of every 3 months for participants to record the prompts they used, activities they did and how long they spent doing them. Participants will send these back in the reply paid envelope along with the goal planning and goal tracking sheets at the end of the 9 month program. Registered participants will participate in a randomised, single-blind, 3-month waitlist-controlled trial. Participants will be randomised into 2 groups. For Arm 1, the intervention (Frontiers box including goal setting techniques and suggestions and cued physical prompts) will be delivered to their door after completing a 30 minute online survey and 15 minute cognitive assessment over the phone at baseline. They will then proceed with their 6 month and 9 month follow-up surveys as well as their 15 minute telephone cognitive assessments. At the end of the intervention period the first 15-20 participants from each arm who provided consent to be contacted for an evaluation interview will be contacted by researchers to schedule a semi-structured individual interview for an impact/outcome evaluation.