Brain Training App for Cognition in People with Long Covid (BEACON)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Online brain training for people with cognitive impairment following SARS-CoV-2 infection: A randomised controlled clinical trial
IRAS ID
327021
Contact name
Anne Corbett
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Exeter
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 3 days
Research summary
The most concerning legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic is Long-Covid which affects at least 9.9% of people. About 25% of people with Long-Covid experience problems with their brain health, such as memory problems. These symptoms could stop people getting back to work and socialising and could increase their risk of dementia later in life. There is a need for a low-cost, effective treatment that can be rolled out on a large scale. Brain training offers a means to address this and digital delivery is a pragmatic way of delivering it.
The Reasoning Cognitive Training (ReaCT) brain training programme is available online and is known to help maintain brain health in older adults, but has not yet been tested in people with Long-Covid. This study aims to establish the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the ReaCT brain training programme in adults with cognitive impairment following Covid-19.
This will be a six-month two-arm placebo-controlled double-blind randomised controlled trial in 608 adults over 40 and a further 1000 adults over 18. Participants with a laboratory-confirmed case of Covid-19 and subjective cognitive impairment will be recruited through primary care, publicity, social media and an existing ageing research cohort. Participants will register, consent and take part through an app on their smartphone or mobile device.
They will be randomly allocated to receive the ReaCT programme of six evidence-based problem-solving tasks, or a control task. Outcomes will be collected through the app at baseline, six weeks and six months. The primary outcome will be cognition measured by the FLAME computerised cognitive test battery, with secondary outcomes of cognition, function, fatigue, mood and quality of life. Service use and employment will be collected to support a health economics analysis. Analysis will follow an intention-to-treat approach in adults over 40 with a secondary analysis with the whole trial population.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/NW/0215
Date of REC Opinion
7 Aug 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion