Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25835516›Full record

Trial reportAlzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association2015

Impact of the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial on cortical and hippocampal volumes.

Michelle C Carlson, Julie H Kuo, Yi-Fang Chuang, Vijay R Varma, Greg Harris, Marilyn S Albert, Kirk I Erickson, Arthur F Kramer, Jeanine M Parisi, Qian-Li Xue and 8 more

Open access · greenAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
65citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
11.2field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

65 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 189 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
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  7. Using Cognitive Intraindividual Variability to Measure Intervention Effectiveness: Results from the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2021
    Trial
  8. Trial
  9. Variety of Enriching Early-Life Activities Linked to Late-Life Cognitive Functioning in Urban Community-Dwelling African Americans.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2019
    Trial
  10. Physical Activity and Cerebral Small Vein Integrity in Older Adults.Medicine and science in sports and exercise · 2019
    Trial
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  16. Prosocial helping behaviors attenuate accelerated cognitive decline driven by APOE ε4.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. A lifespan perspective on cognitive reserve and risk for dementia.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025
    Article
  20. Article

5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

18 authors at 9 institutions in 2 countries.

Michelle C CarlsonDepartment of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: mcarlso2@jhu.edu.
Julie H KuoDepartment of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Yi-Fang ChuangDepartment of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, and Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Vijay R VarmaDepartment of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Greg HarrisCenter on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Marilyn S AlbertDepartment of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Kirk I EricksonDepartment of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Arthur F KramerBeckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
Jeanine M ParisiDepartment of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Qian-Li XueCenter on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Eriwn J TanThe Corporation for National and Community Service, Washington, DC, USA.
Elizabeth K TannerCenter on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Community-Public Health, The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Alden L GrossCenter on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Teresa E SeemanDivision of Geriatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Tara L GruenewaldDavis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Sylvia McGillGreater Homewood Community Corporation, Baltimore, MD, USA.
George W RebokDepartment of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Center on Aging and Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Linda P FriedMailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
Johns Hopkins University · USJohns Hopkins Medicine · USAmeriCorps · USColumbia University · USTaipei Veterans General Hospital · TWUniversity of California, Los Angeles · USUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · USUniversity of Pittsburgh · USUniversity of Southern California · US

Funding

VARIABILITY, STABILITY & SMOOTHNESS OF WALKINGP30AG024827 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI Caterina Rosano · 2004 to 2026
$28.6M
EPIDEMIOLOGY AND BIOSTATISTICS OF AGINGT32AG000247 · NIA · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI Karen J. Bandeen-Roche · 1996 to 2026
$13.2M
SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF EXPERIENCE CORPS PARTICIPATIONP01AG027735 · NIA · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI REBOK, GEORGE W. · 2006 to 2013
$10.9M
Research Training in Age-Related Cognitive DisordersT32AG027668 · NIA · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI MARILYN S. ALBERT · 2007 to 2026
$6.3M
NIA NIH HHS P01 AG027735NIA NIH HHS P01 AG027735-03NIA NIH HHS P30 AG024827NIA NIH HHS T32 AG000247NIA NIH HHS T32AG000247NIA NIH HHS T32 AG027668
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThere is a substantial interest in identifying interventions that can protect and buffer older adults from atrophy in the cortex and particularly, the hippocampus, a region important to memory. We report the 2-year effects of a randomized controlled trial of an intergenerational social health promotion program on older men's and women's brain volumes.

methodsThe Brain Health Study simultaneously enrolled, evaluated, and randomized 111 men and women (58 interventions; 53 controls) within the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial to evaluate the intervention impact on biomarkers of brain health at baseline and annual follow-ups during the 2-year trial exposure.

resultsIntention-to-treat analyses on cortical and hippocampal volumes for full and sex-stratified samples revealed program-specific increases in volumes that reached significance in men only (P's ≤ .04). Although men in the control arm exhibited age-related declines for 2 years, men in the Experience Corps arm showed a 0.7% to 1.6% increase in brain volumes. Women also exhibited modest intervention-specific gains of 0.3% to 0.54% by the second year of exposure that contrasted with declines of about 1% among women in the control group. DISCUSSION: These findings showed that purposeful activity embedded within a social health promotion program halted and, in men, reversed declines in brain volume in regions vulnerable to dementia. CLINICAL

trial registrationNCT0038.

Indexed as

Health PromotionAgedAgingAtrophyBaltimoreCerebral CortexFemaleHippocampusHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMemory DisordersOrgan SizeSex CharacteristicsTime FactorsTreatment OutcomeBrain agingCognitive activityCortical volumeHippocampusMRINeuroimagingPhysical activityRandomized controlled trialSocial activity

Identifiers

PMID25835516
PMCPMC5179033
OpenAlexW1994571199

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.