Effects of Exercise Training in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment

There is already evidence that exercise training can delay the progression of dementia. But if the same effect could be seen in patients with cognitive impairment remains unknown. There is an increasing importance of how to delay or prevent the turn over of cognitive impairment patients into dementia in recent years. Thus we propose to investigate the following issues.

• To understand the physical activities of patients with cognitive impairment in Taiwan and construct the validity and reliability of the physical activity questionnaire and actigram in this population.
• To understand the relation between brain structure (brain tractography and resting state functional MRI) and cognitive and physical functions of patients with cognitive impairment , the capability of activity and social engagement (including quality of life).
• To understand the efficacy of exercise on the brain structure (brain tractography and resting state functional MRI), cognitive and physical functions, the capability of activity and social engagement (including quality of life) of patients with cognitive impairment.

The study is a cross sectional study. We recruited 40 cognitive impairment patients from the memory clinic at National Taiwan University Hospital and another 20 healthy controls matched for age and gender. We collected the actigram and physical activity from questionnaire for 7 days and performed the analysis for reliability and validity. We will do correlation analysis with the data with resting state functional MRI and tractography, brain connectivity, and plasma Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 amyloid protein.

The study aims to establish the data base of physical activity of patients with cognitive impairment in Taiwan. We will also analyze the efficacy of exercise with ICF model on physical function, physical activity and social engagements to provide an optimized design of exercise program for patients with cognitive impairment in the future.

Inclusion criteria

• Above 45 years old and had independent walking ability
• The MCI is diagnosed basically on Petersen's criteria (Petersen, 2001), CDR score of 0.5 but normal ADL/IADL, and not demented
• Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease based on NINCDS-ADRDA criteria for probable AD (McKhann, et al., 1984)

Exclusion criteria

• The subjects who had any neurological, musculoskeletal, cardio-pulmonary disorder which would cause gait disorder or cognitive dysfunction such as stroke, Parkinson disease, or arthritis were excluded