Apple-Tree intervention offers hope and support for people facing memory loss

Announced at the House of Lords, findings from the paper in The Lancet: Healthy Longevity demonstrate that the intervention, delivered remotely by non-clinical facilitators, is the first to show promise in terms of improved cognition in people living with non-dementia memory problems.

The APPLE-Tree project, a preventive programme aiming to lower the risk of dementia among older people, targets those who are concerned about memory loss. It is designed around key lifestyle changes that can help prevent dementia, including eating healthily and being physically active, connecting more with others and engaging more in enjoyed activities, and reducing smoking and alcohol use.

The study, funded jointly by the  Economic and Social Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research, compared results over two years between those engaging with the APPLE-Tree intervention and a control group. The intervention group demonstrated improvements in cognition similar in magnitude to those achieved with more medicalised interventions led by experts over a longer time period. Greater adherence to the mediterranean diet in the intervention relative to the control condition suggests that dietary change may underpin these cognitive improvements.

An estimated 982,000 people are currently living with dementia across the UK.

WIPH Professor Claudia Cooper, APPLE-Tree Chief Investigator said: “Lifestyle and preventable health changes can make a difference now, but people with memory concerns have told us they feel in limbo - between health and dementia, and don’t know where to go for help. Neighbourhood health services, planned as part of the government’s hospital to community shift in the 10-year health plan, will be well positioned to provide integrated, preventive health and social care support to this group. The APPLE-Tree intervention could help with that.”

Dr Harriet Demnitz-King (WIPH) said: “The APPLE-Tree intervention appeared to improve cognition and offer an accessible, scalable model for secondary dementia prevention. Its remote delivery and use of non-clinical facilitators could enable wide-scale implementation to support adults with memory concerns”.

Ceclia, an APPLE-Tree participant, said: “The APPLE-Tree groups were exactly what I needed - an opportunity to connect with people with similar worries - the practical suggestions and support from other participants and facilitators were ever so helpful and I hope these groups will be available to many more people.”

[1] Harriet Demnitz-King, Mariam Adeleke, Julie A Barber, Michaela Poppe, Jessica Budgett, Sweedal Alberts, Larisa Duffy, Prof Anne-Marie Minihane, Rachel Gillings, Hannah Chapman, Rosario Isabel Espinoza Jeraldo, Oliver Kelsey, Malvika Muralidhar, Sedigheh Zabihi, Elisa Aguirre, Nicholas Bass, Anna Betz, Henry Brodaty, Alexandra Burton, Paul Higgs, Rachael Maree Hunter, Jonathan Huntley, Helen C Kales, Iain Lang, Natalie L Marchant, Sarah Morgan-Trimmer, Penny Rapaport, Miguel Rio, Irene Petersen, Zuzana Walker, Kate Walters, Sube Banerjee, Joanne Rodda, Marina Palomo, Claudia Cooper. Remote, lower-intensity, multidomain lifestyle intervention for subjective cognitive decline or mild cognitive impairment (APPLE-Tree): a multicentre, single-masked, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Healthy Longevity, 20 October 2025. 100777, ISSN 2666-7568.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanhl.2025.100777