The second annual post-test was conducted at 2 years after the intervention.
In the ACTIVE trial, a large number of measurements approaches are used in the collection of data. These include telephone interviewing, face-to-face interviews, administration of standardized paper-and-pencil tests, computer-administered tests, observational measurement of activity performance, measurement of physical functioning, self-administered questionnaires, transcription of medications taken, collection of archival data from Medicare/Medicaid health-service utilization records, and collection of driving records from state departments of motor vehicules.
The ACTIVE trial had multiple outcomes, both proximal (cognitive abilities) and primary (daily function).
Proximal outcomes permitted a test of the impact of the 3 interventions on the appropriate cognitive abilities. Memory assessment focused on episodic verbal memory tasks. Reasoning assessment focused on tasks requiring identification of patterns in letter or word series problems. Speed-of-processing assessment focused on identifying the minimum stimulus duration at which participants could identify and localize information, with 75% accuracy, under varying levels of cognitive demand.
Primary outcomes were aspects of functional activities, both performance-based and self-reported. Everyday problem solving represented the ability to reason and correctly identify information in common everyday stimuli (eg, medication labels, charts, forms). This was measured via paper-and-pencil testing and behavioral simulations of everyday tasks. Everyday speed emphasized the speed with which participants interacted with real-world stimuli. Participants were asked to look up a specific telephone number, find food items on a crowded shelf of groceries, find ingredients on food labels, count out specified amounts of change, find specified information on medicine bottles, and respond appropriately to different traffic signs. Activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumented activities of daily living included self-ratings drawn from the Minimum Data Set—Home Care (MDS-HC). Driving habits included self-ratings of driving difficulty and avoidance of specific driving situations.