Adapted Home-Based Exercises in Dementia: An Exploratory Pre-post Pilot and Feasibility Study

TL;DR

This study tested a home-based exercise program for people with early-stage Alzheimer's, finding it feasible but with small improvements in mobility and cognitive function.

Contribution

The study introduces a feasible home-based exercise program tailored for individuals with prodromal or mild Alzheimer’s disease.

Findings

All basic functional mobility measures showed small effect sizes after the 8-week program.

Five executive function measures showed small to moderate effect sizes.

Feasibility criteria like recruitment and drop-out rates were successfully met.

Abstract

The goals of this exploratory pre-post pilot and feasibility study (NCT04916964) were to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of an adapted Test-and-Exercise home-based exercise program on basic functional mobility and executive functions in persons with prodromal or mild Alzheimer’s disease. Participants followed an 8 week exercise program at home, once per week with a physiotherapist and twice per week with their usual caregiver or independently. Functional mobility and executive functions were assessed before and after the intervention. Feasibility criteria were recruitment opportunity, participation agreement rate, cost adequacy, and drop-out rate. Twelve participants aged 80.83 ± 4.65 years took part in the study. All the basic functional mobility measures showed small effect sizes. Concerning executive functions, 5 measures showed small to moderate effect sizes. The 4 feasibility criteria were met. A larger scale study would, however, need adaptations and prior research on the ability of this population to use touch-screen technology.

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