Highlights
- •Strength training can bring significant improvements in Barthel Index, Mini-Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and plasma monocyte chemotactic protein-1 levels in elderly patients with dementia.
- •Aerobic training can bring significant improvements in Barthel Index, Mini-Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, plasma monocyte chemotactic protein-1, and serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in elderly patients with dementia.
- •The degree of improvement in Barthel Index, Mini-Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, plasma monocyte chemotactic protein-1, and serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels did not achieve statistical significant difference between groups.
Abstract
Objective
To investigate whether strength or aerobic training can offer significantly more benefits
with regarding the activities of daily living of elderly patients with dementia as
well as to determine the effects of exercise on cognition, depression, and biochemical
markers.
Design
Single-blind randomized controlled trial.
Setting
A nursing home for veterans.
Participants
A volunteer sample of participants (N=80) whose scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination
were between 15 and 26 were included. Because of cardiopulmonary or orthopedic conditions
that prohibit exercise training, along with any cognitive problems that may impede
answering the contents of our questionnaires, 11 participants were excluded. During
the exercise training period, 8 participants voluntarily dropped out of the study.
Interventions
The participants were randomly assigned to perform either strength or aerobic training
for a total of 4 weeks.
Main Outcome Measures
The main outcome measure was the Barthel Index. Other outcome measures included the
Mini-Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Geriatric Depression
Scale, plasma monocyte chemotactic protein-1 levels, insulin-like growth factor-1
levels, and serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels.
Results
After completion of the program, we discovered a significant improvement in the patients’
Barthel Index, Mini-Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and plasma
monocyte chemotactic protein-1 levels in the strength-training group. For the patients
who had received aerobic training, their serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor also
improved significantly. However, the degree of improvement regarding these outcome
measures did not achieve significant statistical difference between the 2 groups.
Conclusions
Through our study, an intensive 4-week exercise program, whether it be strength or
aerobic training, is evidenced to bring significant benefits to elderly patients with
dementia, while the serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor was additionally improved
through aerobic training.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
ADL (activities of daily living), BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), CCI (Charlson Comorbidity Index), GDS (Geriatric Depression Scale), IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1), MCP-1 (monocyte chemotactic protein-1), MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination), MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 18, 2020
Footnotes
Supported by the Taichung Veterans General Hospital (grant no. TCVGH-1086602D and TCVGH-1076602D).
Clinical Trial Registration No.: NCT03811314.
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
