Table 2.

Cognitive health protective factors commonly investigated across studies and study participants’ perceptions about protective factors (n = 17 studies)

FIRST AUTHOR AND YEAR	INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION/ MENTAL ACTIVITY		PHYSICAL ACTIVITY		HEALTHY DIET		SOCIAL/ LEISURE ACTIVITIES		LIMIT ALCOHOL		PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION/ MEDICAL INTERVENTION		VITAMINS/ SUPPLEMENTS		HEALTHY WEIGHT		LIMIT STRESS		POSITIVE ATTITUDE		AVOID ILLICIT DRUGS		AVOID SMOKING
	I*	A*	I	A	I	A	I	A	I	A	I	A	I	A	I	A	I	A	I	A	I	A	I	A
Low et al., 2007	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+			+	+		+	+	+
McIlvane et al., 2008	+	+	+	+	+	−					+	−	+	−			+	−	+	+
Yeo et al., 2007†			+	−									+	−
Beard et al., 2009‡		+		+		+		+
Connell et al., 2009	+	+	+	+	+	+					+	−	+	−			+	+
Gray et al., 2009	+	−	+	−	+	−					+	+	+	−
Laditka et al., 2009‡		+						+
Low et al., 2009	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	−	+	−	+	−			+	−			+	−	+	−
Wilcox et al., 2009§			+	+	+	+
Wu et al., 2009‡		+		+		+		+		+
Anderson et al., 2011	+	+					+	+
Friedman et al., 2011§	+	+					+	+											+	+
Price et al., 2011§			+	+
Laditka et al., 2012‡		+		+		+		+		+												+		+
Luck et al., 2012	+	+	+	+		+	+	+			+	+
Ayalon 2013	+	+	+	+	+	+							+	+
Friedman et al., 2013	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+							+	−
Number of Studies	10	13	11	12	8	10	6	10	3	4	6	3	8	3	1	2	4	2	2	2	1	1	2	1

+/+ = Factor investigated and agreed upon or identified by participants.

+/− = Factor investigated but not agreed upon or identified by participants.

/+ = Factor identified by participants in qualitative (inductive) study.

^*Factors categorized as ‘Agreed upon/Identified’ may not have been cited by all subgroups within a single study.

^†Protective factors examined in study; numeric perception results not presented.

^‡Participants were not asked to select factors from a list; inductive, qualitative analysis.

^§Qualitative study, however, analysis focused on perceptions about specific factors.