[100-Year Brain Health⑨] Dementia Prevention: The World's Five 'Fingers' Promise

Professor Wiesje van der Flier Amsterdam UMC Alzheimer Center
'Finger Program' for Dementia Prevention through Daily Life Domain Intervention
'Worldwide Fingers' Sharing Clinical Information

Wiesje van der Flier, Professor at Amsterdam UMC Alzheimer Center / Photo by Youngwon Kim

[Asia Economy Amsterdam (Netherlands) = Reporter Kim Young-won] "FINGER research simultaneously addresses dementia risk factors across various lifestyle domains. The European FINGERS (EU-FINGERS) further studies future directions such as who benefits the most depending on the factors and what individual risk factors are."

On the 24th of last month (local time), we met Wiesje van der Flier, a professor at the Alzheimer Center of Amsterdam UMC conducting European FINGERS research, in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The FINGER program (Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability) is a dementia prevention program developed with an investment of 1 trillion won by the Finnish and Swedish governments. It is the first study to prove that adjusting different daily life factors can preserve cognitive function in elderly people at high risk of dementia. It is characterized by simultaneously addressing lifestyle areas such as diet, exercise, social interaction, cognitive training, and cardiovascular risk without medication to prevent dementia.

The effectiveness of the FINGER program was confirmed through a three-year study from 2009 to 2011. Researchers conducted a study involving 1,260 high-risk dementia subjects in Finland, addressing these five factors together. As a result, the intervention group showed an overall 25% improvement in cognitive ability, with even greater improvements in areas such as memory and processing speed. The risk of other chronic diseases besides dementia was also reduced by 60%. This indicates an improvement not only in cognition but overall health.

Based on the Finnish study results, a network called Worldwide FINGERS (WW-FINGERS) was established in 2017, where researchers from over 40 countries conduct FINGER-based dementia prevention studies and share clinical information. Researchers from each country share data and conduct joint analyses to develop treatments to prevent cognitive impairment and dementia in various environments. Not all countries in FINGERS conduct research in the same way. Professor van der Flier said, "Each country is creating its own version of FINGER," adding, "Some are even studying whether the FINGER program is effective in early-stage dementia." Korea is also part of Worldwide FINGERS under the name ‘Superbrain.’

The Netherlands FINGERS (NL-FINGERS), which Professor van der Flier belongs to, was formed in early 2021 for research purposes. Professor van der Flier explained, "At the Amsterdam Alzheimer Center, patient care and research have been conducted simultaneously," and "Netherlands FINGERS studies whether lifestyle changes can preserve brain health, and through European FINGERS, a European collaborative research system has begun."

Netherlands FINGERS started research on January 27 of this year. Currently, 400 participants have been recruited, and research has begun in five cities within the Netherlands, with a goal of recruiting a total of 1,200 participants. Netherlands FINGERS added new factors to the existing research. Lifestyle factors such as sleep and stress were added, including Danone’s food products designed to improve memory. Professor van der Flier explained, "Participants are randomly divided into low-intensity and high-intensity intervention groups within groups of 12," adding, "In the low-intensity intervention group, participants work according to their own lifestyle, while in the high-intensity intervention group, they receive more support from lifestyle coaches." Considering participant recruitment and the two-year research period, results are expected in 3 to 4 years.

Professor van der Flier cited ‘mutual cooperation’ as an advantage of Worldwide FINGERS. It allows researchers to gain ideas from each other’s studies. He said, "Since we conduct similar research, we can contact each other when difficulties arise and learn from one another," adding, "We learned a lot about online-based research from the U.S. case." The U.S. FINGERS study, POINTER (U.S. POINTER), shifted to a non-face-to-face platform due to COVID-19, and seeing its efficient execution, Netherlands FINGERS also adopted a non-face-to-face method.

Even after the FINGER program-based studies conducted in various countries conclude, future research topics are expected to be limitless. Professor van der Flier emphasized, "If current research is about whether the (FINGER program) is effective or not, later on, data will need to be collected on 'who' it will be effective for and what campaigns will encourage people to implement it," adding, "That way, personalized dementia prevention programs can be created."

/Amsterdam (Netherlands) = Reporter Kim Young-won forever@