Cooking Health-Oriented Meals to Prevent Dementia and Diabetes

Sponsor
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Study ID
NCT07661368
Status
Not Yet Recruiting

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Conditions

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
50 Years - 75 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Cooking skills training — BEHAVIORAL
    For four weeks, participants (n=20) attend an in-person cooking class once per week (1-1.5 hours), followed by an at-home cooking practice session (1 hour), and at-home cognitive training on their smartphones (3 times per week, 10 minutes per session)
  • Cooking skills education — BEHAVIORAL
    For four weeks, participants (n=20) receive nutrition educational handouts with recipes or cooking tips for healthy, balanced meals via email.

Study Details

Previous research demonstrates that 1) adherence to a DASH dietary pattern and diets low in certain UPFs are linked to lower likelihood of experiencing cognitive impairments in later life (Seago et al., 2025a, 2025b), that 2) engagement in cooking is linked to healthier eating, reduced UPF consumption, and higher food self-efficacy (Lahne et al., 2017), and 3) that cooking activity itself in midlife is associated with reduced incidence of dementia (Tani et al., 2026). There may be multiple pathways through which cooking engagement facilitates healthier cognitive aging- including the benefits of healthier meals on cardiometabolic and neural health, but also the role of cooking as a cognitively-engaging activity - one that has been identified as a potential contributor to cognitive reserve during aging. While at least one computerized cognitive training program is based on cooking activities and has demonstrated improvements to untrained EF processes in older adults, no intervention has used actual cooking as a form of cognitive training. Part of the promise of such an intervention is that this sort of activity, while still engaging EF processes in a way that might lead to generalizable improvements, is much closer to real-world instrumental activities of daily living and may reinforce consumption of a brain- and cardiometabolic- health promoting dietary pattern. This pilot study involves a randomized controlled trial of a behavioral change intervention to promote a healthy diet by increasing cooking self-efficacy (agency), and for this study, cooking self-efficacy is the primary focus.

Key Dates

First listed
Jun 22, 2026
Start date
Jul 31, 2026
Status verified
Jun 2026
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2026
Completion
Dec 31, 2026

Study Design

Enrollment
40 participants (estimated)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION

Arms

  • Experimental: Experimental Group
    For four weeks, participants (n=20) attend an in-person cooking class once per week (1-1.5 hours), followed by an at-home cooking practice session (1 hour), and at-home cognitive training on their smartphones (3 times per week, 10 minutes per session)
  • Active Comparator: Control Group
    For four weeks, participants (n=20) receive nutrition educational handouts with recipes or cooking tips for healthy, balanced meals via email.

Primary Outcome Measure

Food agency scale (FAS) [ Time Frame: Five minute survey in laboratory at baseline and post-intervention ]

Central Contacts

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