Evaluating the effect of Brainfood groups for people with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia: preliminary mixed-methodology study

Background: Brainfood is a 5-week group intervention for people with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia, promoting cognitive health through a Mediterranean-style diet, exercise, mindfulness and health self-management. Aims: To evaluate Brainfood acceptability and the feasibility of conducting a randomised controlled trial; in a single group study in two National Health Service (NHS) memory services. Method: Participants self-completed quantitative and semi-structured questionnaires. Recruitment, attendance and outcome completion were the primary outcomes. Results: In total, 30 of 59 people invited to Brainfood attended; of the 26 (87%) who completed baseline measures: 25 (96%) completed post-intervention quantitative measures, 16 (67%) qualitative questions and 21 (81%) attended ≥3/5 sessions. Compared with baseline, participants reported significantly higher quality of life, Mediterranean diet adherence and exercising more, up to 2 months after the groups. Participants valued the groups and felt enabled to improve their well-being. Conclusions: Brainfood was acceptable and feasible to implement in an NHS setting. Declaration of interest: A.B. and C.C. developed Brainfood - they hold a creative commons license for the manual and make it available to use for free to all. The manual evolves iteratively, but the manual used in this research study is provided in an online supplement