Lifestyle and behavior changes during the COVID19 pandemic in the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER)

Background Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) is a randomized trial that showed beneficial effect on cognition with a 2‐year multidomain lifestyle intervention. During the post‐intervention follow‐up, COVID19 pandemic emerged resulting in lockdown and reduced services. Our aim is to investigate how lifestyle and behavior changes during the pandemic are related to lifestyle earlier in the study. Method The FINGER cohort included 1260 individuals aged 60‐77 years at baseline and at risk of dementia, randomized into multidomain intervention or control groups. A postal survey was sent to all eligible participants from the FINGER study in June 2020 (end of the first wave of the pandemic in Finland), on average 10 year after the baseline. 859 (68%) were still alive and eligible for the survey. Result Total of 735 responders (85% of the eligible participants) were on average 78 years old. They were younger, had higher baseline cognition, and were more often from the former control group than non‐responders (p<0.05 for all). The intervention allocation showed no association with self‐reported lifestyle changes during the pandemic in diet, exercise, or cognitive activity. Among older participants (>78 y), the intervention group reported more increase in remote contact with friends and relatives (p=0.013) and health care (p=0.042) than the control, and also less pandemic‐related reduction in overall contact with friends (p=0.045). Among all, reductions in physical exercise were reported among those who were less physically active earlier in the study. Both increase and decrease in contact with friends and family were reported by those more cognitively active earlier in the study. They also had more increase in remote contacts. Changes in diet were positive (increase in fruit and vegetable intake), but they were not related to earlier diet. Conclusion The FINGER participants reported only minor change in their lifestyle and behavior during the first wave of the COVID pandemic related lockdown. For physical activity, the pandemic appeared to have negative effect particularly among those with lower levels earlier, possibly adding inequalities. Intervention was related to more remote contacts, probably due to better computer literacy after the cognitive training.