TY - JOUR
T1 - Cognitive Effects of Aerobic Exercise in Alzheimer’s Disease
T2 - A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
AU - Yu, Fang
AU - Vock, David M.
AU - Zhang, Lin
AU - Salisbury, Dereck
AU - Nelson, Nathaniel W.
AU - Chow, Lisa S.
AU - Smith, Glenn
AU - Barclay, Terry R.
AU - Dysken, Maurice
AU - Wyman, Jean F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 – The authors. Published by IOS Press.
PY - 2021/3/9
Y1 - 2021/3/9
N2 - Background: Aerobic exercise has shown inconsistent cognitive effects in older adults with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia. Objective: To examine the immediate and longitudinal effects of 6-month cycling on cognition in older adults with AD dementia. Methods: This randomized controlled trial randomized 96 participants (64 to cycling and 32 to stretching for six months) and followed them for another six months. The intervention was supervised, moderate-intensity cycling for 20–50 minutes, 3 times a week for six months. The control was light-intensity stretching. Cognition was assessed at baseline, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months using the AD Assessment Scale-Cognition (ADAS-Cog). Discrete cognitive domains were measured using the AD Uniform Data Set battery. Results: The participants were 77.4 ± 6.8 years old with 15.6 ± 2.9 years of education, and 55% were male. The 6-month change in ADAS-Cog was 1.0 ± 4.6 (cycling) and 0.1 ± 4.1 (stretching), which were both significantly less than the natural 3.2 ± 6.3-point increase observed naturally with disease progression. The 12-month change was 2.4 ± 5.2 (cycling) and 2.2 ± 5.7 (control). ADAS-Cog did not differ between groups at 6 (p = 0.386) and 12 months (p = 0.856). There were no differences in the 12-month rate of change in ADAS-Cog (0.192 versus 0.197, p = 0.967), memory (–0.012 versus –0.019, p = 0.373), executive function (–0.020 versus –0.012, p = 0.383), attention (–0.035 versus –0.033, p = 0.908), or language (–0.028 versus –0.026, p = 0.756). Conclusion: Exercise may reduce decline in global cognition in older adults with mild-to-moderate AD dementia. Aerobic exercise did not show superior cognitive effects to stretching in our pilot trial, possibly due to the lack of power.
AB - Background: Aerobic exercise has shown inconsistent cognitive effects in older adults with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia. Objective: To examine the immediate and longitudinal effects of 6-month cycling on cognition in older adults with AD dementia. Methods: This randomized controlled trial randomized 96 participants (64 to cycling and 32 to stretching for six months) and followed them for another six months. The intervention was supervised, moderate-intensity cycling for 20–50 minutes, 3 times a week for six months. The control was light-intensity stretching. Cognition was assessed at baseline, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months using the AD Assessment Scale-Cognition (ADAS-Cog). Discrete cognitive domains were measured using the AD Uniform Data Set battery. Results: The participants were 77.4 ± 6.8 years old with 15.6 ± 2.9 years of education, and 55% were male. The 6-month change in ADAS-Cog was 1.0 ± 4.6 (cycling) and 0.1 ± 4.1 (stretching), which were both significantly less than the natural 3.2 ± 6.3-point increase observed naturally with disease progression. The 12-month change was 2.4 ± 5.2 (cycling) and 2.2 ± 5.7 (control). ADAS-Cog did not differ between groups at 6 (p = 0.386) and 12 months (p = 0.856). There were no differences in the 12-month rate of change in ADAS-Cog (0.192 versus 0.197, p = 0.967), memory (–0.012 versus –0.019, p = 0.373), executive function (–0.020 versus –0.012, p = 0.383), attention (–0.035 versus –0.033, p = 0.908), or language (–0.028 versus –0.026, p = 0.756). Conclusion: Exercise may reduce decline in global cognition in older adults with mild-to-moderate AD dementia. Aerobic exercise did not show superior cognitive effects to stretching in our pilot trial, possibly due to the lack of power.
KW - Alzheimer’s disease
KW - cognition
KW - dementia
KW - exercise
KW - physical activity
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U2 - 10.3233/JAD-201100
DO - 10.3233/JAD-201100
M3 - Article
C2 - 33523004
AN - SCOPUS:85102964613
SN - 1387-2877
VL - 80
SP - 233
EP - 244
JO - Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
JF - Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
IS - 1
ER -