Researcher to examine if brain training helps combat memory loss in heart failure patients

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $2.5 million grant to an IU School of Nursing researcher for a study that will examine whether computerized cognitive training exercises can improve memory and quality of life for heart failure patients. Heart failure is a prevalent condition, affecting 5.1 million Americans, and is associated with increased mortality and hospitalizations and poor quality of life.

The study will build on an earlier one in which Pressler led a team of interdisciplinary colleagues from the IU schools of nursing and medicine that found 23 percent of people with heart failure had memory loss and that this memory loss was an independent predictor of 12-month all-cause mortality.

Among the participating researchers is IHPI's Marita Titler, a nursing professor at U-M.