Outcome guide · four released stories
Brain and cognition
Was the outcome a test, an ability or dementia?
Keep cognitive tests, practiced abilities, dementia-related outcomes and subgroup findings separate.
Follow the governed path
Ask what was measured before comparing the headline.
Every field below is projected from the released path, Evidence at a glance and published-coverage records. The “why this follows” note explains reading order only; it is not an evidence-strength, efficacy, importance or popularity judgment.
Why this follows in the reading path: Start with a randomized cognitive-test result and the boundary between a measured score and dementia prevention.
- Intervention or exposure
- FINGER
- Population or model
- 1,260 Finnish adults age 60–77 at elevated dementia risk and with average-to-lower cognitive performance
- Study design and comparator
- randomized multidomain trial
- Measured outcome
- global cognitive composite and domain tests
- Released bottom line
- A combined two-year program produced a small cognitive-test advantage; it cannot identify a winning component or establish dementia, disability, mortality, healthspan, or lifespan benefit.
- What this evidence did not establish
- FINGER slightly improved cognitive-test scores. It did not prove dementia prevention
- Evidence scope
- Human cognitive tests · randomized multidomain trial
Last source verification:
Read the released storyWhy this follows in the reading path: Compare practiced abilities with disputed secondary dementia findings and a separate null mortality result.
- Intervention or exposure
- cognitive training
- Population or model
- 2,832 independent U.S. adults age 65–94
- Study design and comparator
- randomized trial plus disputed secondary analysis
- Measured outcome
- trained abilities, daily function, all-cause mortality and claims-diagnosed dementia
- Released bottom line
- ACTIVE supports trained-ability gains and some function signals, found no mortality benefit, and leaves a claims-based dementia subgroup methodologically disputed.
- What this evidence did not establish
- Cognitive training improved practiced skills—not survival or proven dementia prevention
- Evidence scope
- Human trained abilities and long-term outcomes · randomized trial plus disputed secondary analysis
Last source verification:
Read the released storyWhy this follows in the reading path: Next, separate randomized evidence for shingles prevention from non-randomized evidence about dementia outcomes.
- Intervention or exposure
- shingles vaccine
- Population or model
- Adults age 50 or older in ZOE-50 plus older vaccine-eligible cohorts in two dementia analyses
- Study design and comparator
- randomized and non-randomized evidence
- Measured outcome
- herpes-zoster disease and recorded dementia diagnoses
- Released bottom line
- Randomized trials established shingles prevention. Dementia findings come from observational and quasi-experimental studies and do not prove prevention.
- What this evidence did not establish
- Shingles vaccines prevent shingles. Dementia evidence remains non-randomized
- Evidence scope
- Human disease outcomes · randomized and non-randomized evidence
Last source verification:
Read the released storyWhy this follows in the reading path: Finish with a null overall cognitive result whose higher-risk subgroup signal requires confirmation.
- Intervention or exposure
- hearing
- Population or model
- 977 community-dwelling adults age 70–84 with untreated hearing loss
- Study design and comparator
- randomized trial with subgroup signals
- Measured outcome
- three-year standardized global-cognition change
- Released bottom line
- The three-year trial was null across its full cohort. Signals in higher-risk groups need confirmation and do not establish dementia prevention.
- What this evidence did not establish
- Hearing intervention did not slow cognitive decline across the full ACHIEVE trial
- Evidence scope
- Human outcomes · randomized trial with subgroup signals
Last source verification:
Read the released story
Other outcome guides
Keep unlike outcomes in separate lanes.
Each guide contains exactly four already released stories. Counts and order remain descriptive.