Buschert 2011.

Study characteristics
Methods	RCT
Participants	N = 39 24 amnestic MCI; 15 mild Alzheimer's disease (only data on Alzheimer's patients reported in this review) 8F/7M Mean MMSE 24.9 (SD 1.6; range 22‐27) All on stable doses of AChEIs or memantine Age 75.9 (SD 8.1) Outpatients
Interventions	Multi‐component cognitive group intervention ‐ for AD group (N = 8) emphasis on cognitive stimulation (for MCI group more emphasis on cognitive training); Control group (N = 7) had pencil and paper exercises for self‐study and monthly meetings.
Outcomes	Cognition: MMSE; ADAS‐Cog, Trail Making Test, RBANS story memory & recall Quality of life: QoL‐AD Mood: Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale
Notes	2 hours, once a week for 6 months (20 sessions)
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Blocked randomisation procedure; participants pooled in pairs with respect to age, gender, education and ApoE genotype, then randomly assigned pairs to intervention or control using a computerised random number generator
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Blocked randomisation procedure ‐ "a study‐independent person then randomly assigned pairs to the intervention or control arm".
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Assessors blind to group allocation
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Zero attrition in AD group
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Data on all measures reported
Other bias ‐ training and supervision	Unclear risk	No information provided regarding training or supervision of the group leader, who remained constant throughout (first author)
Other bias ‐ treatment manual	Low risk	"Manual with reproducible detailed protocols" developed before start of programme