Aerobic exercise sustains performance of instrumental activities of daily living in early-stage Alzheimer's Disease

No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Vidoni, Eric D.
Perales, Jaime
Alshehri, Mohammed M.
Giles, Abdul-Mannaan
Siengsukon, Catherine F.
Burns, Jeffrey M.
Advisors
Issue Date
2019-07
Type
Article
Keywords
Dementia , Disability , Exercise , Functional independence
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Vidoni, Eric D.; Perales, Jaime; Alshehri, Mohammed M.; Giles, Abdul-Mannaan; Siengsukon, Catherine F.; Burns, Jeffrey M. Aerobic exercise sustains performance of instrumental activities of daily living in early-stage Alzheimer's Disease. Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy, vol. 42:no. 3:pp E129–E134
Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Individuals with Alzheimer disease (AD) experience progressive loss of independence-performing activities of daily living. Identifying interventions to support independence and reduce the economic and psychosocial burden of caregiving for individuals with AD is imperative. The purpose of this analysis was to examine functional disability and caregiver time in individuals with early-stage AD. METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of 26 weeks of aerobic exercise (AEx) versus stretching and toning (ST). We measured functional dependence using the Disability Assessment for Dementia, informal caregiver time required using the Resources Utilization in Dementia Lite, and cognition using a standard cognitive battery. RESULTS: We saw a stable function in the AEx group compared with a significant decline in the ST group (4%; F = 4.2, P = .04). This was especially evident in more complex, instrumental activities of daily living, with individuals in the AEx group increasing 1% compared with an 8% loss in the ST group over 26 weeks (F = 8.3, P = .006). Change in memory was a significant predictor of declining instrumental activities of daily living performance (r = 0.28, 95% confidence interval = 0.08 ∞, P = .01). Informal caregiver time was not different between the AEx and ST groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis extends recent work by revealing specific benefits for instrumental activities of daily living for individuals in the early stages of AD and supports the value of exercise for individuals with cognitive impairment.

Table of Contents
Description
Click on the DOI link to access the article (may not be free).
Publisher
Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.
Journal
Book Title
Series
Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy;v.42:no.3
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
EISSN