Active Brains Study - are you in?

Has anyone else received an invitation from their GP to be part of this study? I received a letter this morning and decided I would give it a go. Selection is purely random, by the way, and only one person per household can take part. The five year study is being run by Southampton University along with other institutions and my guess is that GPs are being paid for sending invitations to a selection of their older patients.

My advice is don't log on unless you have at least an hour to spare! Personal details are requested and then there are several 'puzzles' to be done, some more difficult than others. The numerical one (remembering a string of numbers) I found quite a challenge, others were easier although I don't think I did that well overall. Next up is a long series of questions about your health, diet and lifestyle. After that you are told immediately whether you have been accepted on the study, or not. I think it said 2/3 people are accepted. By this time I was rather hoping I had not been but I was.

I'm not too sure what happens next. You can log on to the website whenever you like to do more 'puzzles' - shan't bother with that one! - and I imagine I'll be asked to complete the questions all over again in a years time to see how I am progressing (or not).

I sort of wish I'd never bothered now but the purpose of the study is to find out if an active brain helps you live longer, so it is probably a useful study and the results might help someone in the future.

Having read this post through, I'm wondering if doing the on-line puzzles provided on a regular basis is actually part of the process of improving one's brain although I can't see anything in the extensive paperwork that says so. I suppose I could read it all through again but my brain hurts now so I won't.