BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Aging
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1613890
Cognitive health promotion through a low-intensity high-volume webinar intervention for older adults at risk of future dementia
Provisionally accepted
Keera N Fishman1,2*
Christopher Pilieci3
Linda Truong3
Gillian Rowe2Renee Climans2Iris Yusupov Rose2Kelly J Murphy2,4- 1Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, Whitby, Ontario, Canada
- 2Neuropsychology & Cognitive Health, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 3Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, Toronto, Canada
- 4Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) affects 1 in 10 older adults and is a significant risk factor for dementia, a condition impacting over 63 million people worldwide. Despite the growing need for dementia prevention care, resources to empower individuals with MCI/cognitive decline and their families remain limited. The Learning the Ropes Foundations© webinar was developed to provide a free, evidence-based, and accessible low-volume, high-intensity intervention to support brain health.Methods: Between January and December 2024, 78 participants with cognitive decline (99% >60 years, 58% women) and 30 family members of those with cognitive decline (97% >50 years, 57% women) completed a survey assessing the webinar’s usability, satisfaction, and ability to motivate behaviour change. One-month following webinar completion, 19 participants with cognitive decline completed a follow-up survey assessing their implementation of behaviour changes. Surveys included Likert-scale and open-ended questions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: 82% of participants with cognitive decline and 97% of family agreed they could apply the information to their everyday lives, 81% of participants with cognitive decline and 100% of family agreed they would recommend the webinar, and 90% of all participants reported being motivated to adopt at least one behaviour change. Of the one-month follow-up participants, 74% reported implementing at least one behaviour change.Discussion: The Learning the Ropes Foundations© webinar shows strong potential as a user-friendly resource that supports usability, satisfaction, and motivation for behaviour change among individuals with MCI/cognitive decline and their families. Future directions include expanding reach and evaluating long-term lifestyle impacts.
Keywords: Memory Decline, cognitive decline, older adults, webinar intervention, Aging and technology, Psychoeducation, non-pharmacological interventions, Neurodegenerative Diseases
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 08 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fishman, Pilieci, Truong, Rowe, Climans, Yusupov Rose and Murphy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Keera N Fishman, Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, Whitby, ON L1N 5S9, Ontario, Canada
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.