Department/School
Psychology, Professional
Date of this version
2015
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Little is known about how aerobic exercise affects Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The purpose of this pilot study was to test the impact of 6-month cycling on AD symptoms in community-dwelling older adults with mild-to-moderate AD, using a single-group, repeated-measures design (n = 26). AD symptoms were measured with the AD Assessment Scale–Cognitive (ADAS-Cog), Disability in AD (DAD), and Neuropsychiatric Inventory–Caregiver (NPI-Q) scales at baseline, 3 and 6 months. Data were analyzed using mixed linear models. The ADAS-Cog, DAD, and NPI-Q severity scores remained unchanged over the 6-month period, while caregiver distress decreased 40% (p < .05). We conclude that aerobic exercise may reduce AD symptoms and appears effective in decreasing caregiver distress. Further randomized controlled trials are needed to examine the effects of aerobic exercise in AD.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464813512895
Volume
34
Issue
4
Published in
Journal of Applied Gerontology
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Citation/Other Information
Yu, F., Thomas, W., Nelson, N. W., Bronas, U. G., Dysken, M., & Wyman, J. F. (2015). Impact of 6-month aerobic exercise on Alzheimer’s symptoms. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 34(4), 484-500. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464813512895