The Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Cognitive Function of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of moderate intensity of aerobic exercise on elderly people with mild Alzheimer's disease, we recruited fifty volunteers aged 50 years to 80 years with cognitive impairment. They were randomized into two groups: aerobic group (n=25) or control group (n=25). The aerobic group was treated with cycling training at 70% of maximal intensity for 40 min/d, 3 d/wk for 3 months. The control group was only treated with heath education. Both groups were received cognitive evaluation, laboratory examination before and after 3 months. The results showed that the Minimum Mental State Examination score, Quality of Life Alzheimer's Disease score and the plasma Apo-a1 level was significantly increased (P<0.05), the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognition score, Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire score was significantly decreased.(P<0.05) in aerobic group before and after 3 months in aerobic group. For the control group, there was no significant difference in scores of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognition, Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire, Quality of Life Alzheimer's Disease, Apo-a1 (P>0.05), while Minimum Mental State Examination scores decreased significantly after 3 months (P<0.05). In conclusion, moderate intensity of aerobic exercise can improve cognitive function in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.

Effects of 12‐month exercise intervention on physical and cognitive functions of nursing home residents requiring long‐term care: a non‐randomised pilot study

“…The exercise intervention was arranged for the participants requiring long-term care based on previous studies. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] The exercise time was made shorter compared with previous studies, taking into consideration that the participants are nursing home residents who require long-term care and have cognitive dysfunction. We organised the exercise class so that the participants could easily understand and enjoy the activities.…”

“…Previous studies have shown the favourable effects of exercise on cognitive function and physical activity. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] On the other hand, the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders (LIFE) study, a 24-month physical activity program, has shown no improvements in global or domain-specific cognitive function among sedentary older adults. 10 Most of these previous studies are communitybased studies.…”

Effects of physical exercise on cognitively impaired older adults: a meta-analysis of randomized control trials

“…While more than one-third of the interventions were beneficial, 14 out of 26 controls significantly decreased. Descriptions of intervention and control groups included in the review are presented in Table 3 [29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54]. All of the included studies were considered to have had a good methodological quality, scoring between 7 and 9 points according to the PEDro.…”

Aerobic Exercise: Evidence for a Direct Brain Effect to Slow Parkinson Disease Progression

“…Dementia/Mild Cognitive Impairment: Aerobic-Type Exercise Generally Provides Cognitive Benefits. Among those already cognitively impaired, most prospective exercise trials documented significant cognitive benefits [146][147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155] ; however, a few reported only modest outcomes, [156][157][158] with 1 negative study. 159 The most recent metaanalysis assessing RCTs of aerobic exercise in demented patients reported significant positive effects on cognition.…”