Aging - Healthy Brain Initiative

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Healthy Brain Initiative

The role of public health in enhancing the physical health of older adults is well-known. Public health’s role in maintaining cognitive health, a vital part of healthy aging and quality of life, is emerging. Cognition is a combination of mental processes that includes the ability to learn new things, intuition, judgment, language and remembering. The need for a clearly delineated public health role comes at a critical time, given the dramatic aging of the U.S. population, scientific advancements in risk behaviors (e.g., lack of physical activity, uncontrolled high blood pressure) related to cognitive decline, and the growing awareness of the significant health, social and economic burdens associated with cognitive decline. The Healthy Brain Initiative is a multi-faceted approach to cognitive health that includes the following:

The lack of cognitive health – from mild cognitive decline to dementia—can have profound implications for an individual’s health and well-being. Older adults and others experiencing cognitive decline may be unable to care for themselves or to conduct necessary activities of daily living, such as meal preparation and money management. Limitations in the ability to effectively manage medications and existing medical conditions are of particular concern when an individual is experiencing cognitive decline or dementia. If cognitive decline could be prevented or better treated, lives of many older adults could be improved.

Opportunities for maintaining cognitive health are growing as public health professionals gain a better understanding of risk factors for cognitive decline. The public health community should embrace cognitive health as a priority, invest in its promotion, and enhance our ability to move scientific discoveries rapidly into public health practice.

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The Healthy Brain Initiative: A National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health

A National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health is a call to action and a guide to assist in implementing a coordinated approach to moving cognitive health into public health practice. The Roadmap was written to bring together multiple partners, agencies and organizations. It was developed in a year long process following a research meeting on “The Healthy Brain and Our Aging Population: Translating Science into Public Health Practice,” in May 2006. The developmental process involved partners at the national, state and local levels, including the Alzheimer’s Association, National Institutes of Health, Administration on Aging, AARP, National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, the Healthy Aging Research Network of the Prevention Research Centers, and many others. The priority actions are grounded in the current state of the science, emphasize primary prevention, and are focused on community and population health. The priority actions were developed and reviewed by over 150 experts across various disciplines and organizations.

A National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health was released on June 10th, 2007 at the International Prevention of Dementia Conference in Washington, DC.

Research

Understanding the publics’ perception of “brain health”

The CDC funded the Healthy Aging Research Network (PRC-HAN), a Prevention Research Centers network of nine universities involving experts in the field of aging and working within communities, is conducting prevention research on older adult health issues including cognitive health. HAN members are collaborating on a network-wide project that involves a series of focus groups designed to identify how diverse groups of older adults understand cognitive health and what health promotion and disease prevention approaches related to cognitive health the public may find most appealing. This project has recently been expanded to examine the perceptions of caregivers and healthcare providers. It will provide important data that can be added to what is already known about cognitive or “brain” health, identify gaps in knowledge about cognitive health and related risk factors, and determine if such beliefs vary across geographical distances and between diverse populations.

Healthy Aging Research Network (PRC-HAN)

Research Meeting on the “Healthy Brain and our Aging Population: Translating Science to Public Health Practice”

CDC and the Alzheimer’s Association held a meeting in May 2006 to bring together national experts to review and discuss the current scientific knowledge of major risk and protective factors related to maintaining cognitive function and reducing risk for cognitive decline. Additionally, the meeting focused on addressing the potential to promote and protect cognitive health and emotional well-being through new collaborations and investments to move the science forward for the benefit of the public. The findings from the research meeting have provided a foundation and common frame of reference to moving cognitive health forward to find programmatic and prevention research strategies to intervene on risk factors (e.g., lack of physical activity, uncontrolled high blood pressure) that have an impact on cognitive health issues. Proceedings from the meeting were published in an April 2007 supplement issue, “The Healthy Brain and our Aging Population” of Alzheimer’s & Dementia: the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Partnerships

CDC has established a cooperative agreement with the Alzheimer’s Association to develop and implement a multifaceted community-based demonstration project to educate African American baby boomers on the current state of science related to brain-healthy lifestyles. The community intervention is designed to effect knowledge and attitudes among African American baby boomers related to physical activity and vascular risk factors, and it will be overlaid with information on other general health behaviors such as diet, social activity and mental activity. During the first phase of this project, the Alzheimer’s Association is leading a comprehensive planning and development effort, including formative research to assess the current needs and obstacles for the target population, eliciting community input and participation, and creating a comprehensive, multi-level community intervention with robust evaluation mechanisms to measure effectiveness of the public health project in the next phase.

Resources

Engaging Young People on Cognitive Health

The CDC Healthy Aging Program worked with CDC’s Science Ambassador Program to teach budding scientists about Alzheimer’s disease. This program partners CDC scientists with middle and high school science teachers to develop public health-related lesson plans that meet National Science Education standards. These lesson plans bring current and relevant science topics into the classroom and challenge students to think about science as it applies to their own lives.

The Aging Brain: A Lesson on Alzheimer's Disease (PDF–336KB)

Reference citation:
Source: Himes C, Oettinger EN, Kenny DE (2004). Aging in Stride: Plan ahead, stay connected, keep moving. Washington: Caresource Healthcare Communications, Inc.

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