Brain health research study by AARP: Consumers pursue brain training to support a more enjoyable, self-managed life

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AARP just released a very inter­est­ing brain health research study based on 1,200 online inter­views con­duct­ed in August 2014. Key find­ings include:

• Main­tain­ing a healthy lifestyle is impor­tant to all con­sumers (99% find it at least some­what impor­tant). Brain health is the sec­ond most impor­tant com­po­nent in main­tain­ing a healthy lifestyle, after heart health (37% find brain health most impor­tant while 51% find heart health most impor­tant). Younger con­sumers are more inclined to feel brain health is the most impor­tant com­po­nent to over­all health, but they are also more like­ly to believe that brain dete­ri­o­ra­tion can­not be reversed.
• While ade­quate rest (86%), reduced stress (86%), prop­er nutri­tion (84%), and phys­i­cal exer­cise (75%) are seen as the most impor­tant com­po­nents to healthy liv­ing, con­sumers also engage in puz­zles and games online (48%) and in news­pa­pers, books, and mag­a­zines (37%). To bet­ter main­tain a healthy lifestyle, con­sumers are will­ing to spend mon­ey on tools or resources to main­tain or improve brain health (50% are very or extreme­ly willing).
• Brain train­ing is a rel­a­tive­ly well-known con­cept among con­sumers (52% are aware of brain train­ing). Work­ing on puz­zles (70%), solv­ing word prob­lems (67%), math prob­lems (59%), and play­ing mem­o­riza­tion games (55%) are all pop­u­lar cog­ni­tive exer­cis­es con­sumers have engaged to improve or main­tain brain health. There is also inter­est in engag­ing in these activ­i­ties in the future (43%, 44%, 46%, and 52% would con­sid­er these activ­i­ties in the future, respectively).
• Con­sumers are like­ly to engage in brain train­ing to sup­port liv­ing a more enjoy­able, self-man­aged life (91%). Cat­a­stroph­ic events affect­ing the brain, inabil­i­ty to man­age sim­ple tasks, wors­en­ing mem­o­ry, and wit­ness­ing a loved one suf­fer from a decline in brain health are pri­ma­ry moti­va­tors to par­tic­i­pate in activ­i­ties to main­tain or improve brain health (76%, 74%, 74%, and 73%, respectively).
• Across brain train­ing pro­grams, con­sumers are pri­mar­i­ly aware of Lumos­i­ty (51%) and Mind Games (35%). Brain HQ is the least used pro­gram (19% of those aware of the pro­gram), but giv­en the most con­sid­er­a­tion for future usage (72% of those aware of the program).
• Con­sumers pri­mar­i­ly look to their doc­tor and friends or fam­i­ly to learn more about brain health (70% and 51%, respec­tive­ly). When research­ing brain health, con­sumers pre­fer sources sup­port­ed by doc­tors (72%) and pro­fes­sion­als (69%) that are cur­rent and up-to-date with sup­port­ing sta­tis­ti­cal data (57%).

Learn more:

• Full 2014 Brain Health Research Study (opens PDF)
• AARP’s Best Books Series: Brain Fitness
• Info­graph­ic on the Dig­i­tal Brain Health Mar­ket 2012–2020