Lifestyle Program Improves Brain Health in Latin America

Key Takeways:

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  The LatAm-FINGERS research exhibits life-style interventions tailored throughout Latin American cultures, well being programs and communities can enhance reminiscence, pondering and total cognitive perform in older adults in danger for cognitive decline and dementia.
  




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  The outcomes reinforce findings from the U.S. POINTER trial exhibiting {that a} multi-component life-style intervention with structured steering, teaching and peer help improves cognitive perform greater than a self-guided strategy in at-risk older adults.
  

LONDON, July 13, 2026 — The Alzheimer’s Association-funded Latin American Initiative for Lifestyle Intervention to Prevent Cognitive Decline (LatAm-FINGERS) discovered that two culturally tailor-made life-style interventions improved reminiscence, pondering and total cognitive perform in older adults vulnerable to dementia throughout 11 Latin American nations, with the strongest positive aspects seen in members receiving structured help and training.

Findings from the two-year research reported right this moment on the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference® (AAIC®) 2026 in London and on-line construct on and reinforce outcomes from the U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER), demonstrating that multidomain life-style interventions — together with bodily exercise, wholesome consuming, cognitive coaching and social engagement — will be efficiently tailored throughout various cultures, well being programs and communities. The research can also be being published simultaneously in The Lancet.

“The results demonstrate for the first time in Latin America that culturally adapted lifestyle interventions can be successfully implemented across diverse countries and communities, and deliver cognitive benefits for populations that are often underrepresented in clinical research,” stated Lucia Crivelli, Ph.D., lead creator of the research and principal investigator at Fleni, a neurological institute in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“We did not simply translate the U.S. POINTER model into Spanish and Portuguese. We adapted it to local cultures and habits while preserving its core elements — making the program practical, affordable and feasible as a public health strategy,” Crivelli added.

Multinational working teams with representatives from every collaborating nation recognized which elements wanted to stay standardized and which may very well be tailor-made domestically primarily based on tradition, local weather, meals availability, know-how entry and participant preferences.

Physical exercise applications integrated culturally acquainted actions resembling salsa and tango, and outside group train in public parks. Nutrition counseling tailored the MIND food plan to regional meals traditions by relying extra on meals resembling avocado, quinoa, açaí, aguaymanto, chia and pumpkin seeds as domestically accessible options. Study supplies have been translated and culturally tailored, with extra help for members with restricted digital expertise.

“LatAm-FINGERS included significant racial and ethnic diversity, and a wide range in education and socioeconomic status (SES). The results demonstrate that brain health can be improved across diverse communities representing different cultures and with varying access to resources,” stated Laura D. Baker, Ph.D., professor of gerontology and geriatrics, inner medication, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Advocate Health, and U.S. POINTER principal investigator. “We now have a second strong finding in a completely different part of the world, which suggests that the U.S. POINTER formula can be adapted for anybody.”

“I am confident that we can successfully use the U.S. POINTER structured intervention to expand our tools and resources to further engage Latino and Hispanic communities in the U.S. — and beyond that to other communities — and the program will be equally effective,” Baker stated.

Because Alzheimer’s and different dementias are influenced by a number of well being and life-style components, researchers consider addressing a number of danger components collectively could provide the best profit for mind well being. As dementia charges rise worldwide, the findings spotlight the potential for sensible danger discount methods with accessible and adaptable lifestyle-based applications, significantly in areas that embrace low- and middle-income nations.

“The LatAm-FINGERS results add to U.S. POINTER findings by extending the evidence to Latin America and strengthening the case that these behavioral and lifestyle interventions can be adapted for diverse populations and communities worldwide,” stated Heather M. Snyder, Ph.D., Alzheimer’s Association senior vice chairman of medical and scientific relations.

“A key message from this study is that structure and social support matter,” Snyder continued. “Addressing multiple lifestyle factors can positively impact brain health and may eventually be combined with emerging drug therapies to reduce cognitive decline and dementia risk.”

The research evaluation included 1,065 members throughout 12 websites in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. Participants have been randomly assigned to one in all two intervention teams, which differed in construction, depth and degree of help:

• The 539 members within the Systematic Lifestyle Intervention (SLI) group obtained ongoing teaching and help, together with supervised train, diet counseling primarily based on an tailored MIND food plan, computerized cognitive coaching, cardiovascular danger monitoring and 38 group conferences for social connection and accountability.
• The 526 members within the Flexible Lifestyle Intervention (FLI) group obtained periodic well being schooling and normal life-style suggestions. Over the two-year interval, they attended 4 group conferences the place they obtained suggestions on food plan, bodily exercise, cognitive and social engagement and vascular danger administration with out ongoing teaching or supervision.

After two years, members within the SLI group demonstrated considerably higher cognitive enchancment than these within the FLI group. The SLI group confirmed a 55% higher enchancment on a composite measure of world cognition than the FLI group. Participants within the SLI group additionally demonstrated considerably higher enhancements in reminiscence, government perform and processing pace.

LatAm-FINGERS and U.S. POINTER are a part of the World-Wide FINGERS community, primarily based on the unique Finnish FINGER trial exhibiting that multidomain life-style interventions could assist defend cognitive perform in older adults in danger for decline.

The Alzheimer’s Association has invested greater than $81 million in LatAm-FINGERS and U.S. POINTER and lately launched a number of public mind well being initiatives knowledgeable by these findings, together with the Brain Health Habit Builder assessment tool, Alzheimer’s Association Brain Health Roundtable and Brain Health at Work. The lately launched (re)think your brain™ initiative helps folks transfer from mind well being consciousness to motion and gives a “recipe” for wholesome behaviors primarily based on U.S. POINTER outcomes.

About the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference^® (AAIC^®)

The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world’s largest gathering of researchers from all over the world targeted on Alzheimer’s and different dementias. As part of the Alzheimer’s Association’s analysis program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for producing new data about dementia and fostering an important, collegial analysis group.

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About the Alzheimer’s Association^®

The Alzheimer’s Association is a worldwide voluntary well being group devoted to Alzheimer’s care, help and analysis. Our mission is to paved the way to finish Alzheimer’s and all different dementia — by accelerating international analysis, driving danger discount and early detection, and maximizing high quality care and help. Our imaginative and prescient is a world with out Alzheimer’s and all different dementia®. Visit alz.org or name +1 800.272.3900.

Media Contacts: 

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