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Effects of physical activity and exercise on the cognitive function of patients with Alzheimer disease: a meta-analysis
Jia RX, Liang JH, Xu Y, Wang YQ.. BMC geriatrics, 2019-07-02
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
Background Alzheimer's disease (AD), as the most common cause of dementia, brings huge economic burden for patients and social health care systems, which motivates researchers to study multiple protective factors, among which physical activity and exercise have been proven to be both effective and economically feasible. Methods A systematic literature search was performed for eligible studies published up to November 1st 2018 on three international databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase) and two Chinese databases (Wanfang Data, China National Knowledge Infrastructure). All analyses were conducted using Stata 14.0. Due to heterogeneity between studies, a random-effects model was used for this meta-analysis. Meta-analysis was used to explore if physical activity and exercise can exert positive effects on cognition of elderly with AD and subgroup analyses were conducted to find out if there are dose-response effects. Results A total of 13 randomized controlled trials were included with a sample size of 673 subjects diagnosed with AD. Intervention groups showed a statistically significant improvement in cognition of included subjects measured by the MMSE score (SMD = 1.12 CI:0.66~1.59) compared to the control groups. Subgroup analyses showed different amounts of physical activity and exercise can generate different effects. Conclusions As one of few meta-analyses comparing different quantities of physical activity and exercise interventions for AD in details, our study suggests that physical activity and exercise can improve cognition of older adults with AD. While the concomitant effects on cognition functions of high frequency interventions was not greater than that of low frequency interventions, the threshold remains to be settled. However, more RCTs with rigorous study design are needed to support our findings.
Key findings
- Results A total of 13 randomized controlled trials were included with a sample size of 673 subjects diagnosed with AD.
- Intervention groups showed a statistically significant improvement in cognition of included subjects measured by the MMSE score (SMD = 1.12 CI:0.66~1.59) compared to the control groups.
- Conclusions As one of few meta-analyses comparing different quantities of physical activity and exercise interventions for AD in details, our study suggests that physical activity and exercise can improve cognition of older adults with AD.
- However, more RCTs with rigorous study design are needed to support our findings.
Why it matters
This meta-analysis of 13 randomised controlled trials found that physical activity and exercise improved cognition in people with Alzheimer's disease, as measured by MMSE scores. Subgroup analyses suggested that different amounts of activity produce different effects.
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Study details
- Study designmeta-analysis
- Participants673
- Evidence strengthHigh
How this study scored 68/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal, and it is a meta-analysis pooling many studies. Scored zero for effect reported because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (BMC geriatrics) |
| Journal's citation record | 2 / 4 | BMC Geriatrics: journal h-index 153 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 12 / 12 | A meta-analysis pooling many studies |
| Strength of evidence | 5 / 5 | Rated “high” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 2 / 5 | 2019 — within 10 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 2 / 4 | 673 participants |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (participant count stated) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | A review of other studies — randomisation is not credited here |
| Times cited | 6 / 7 | Cited 453 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 5 / 5 | 50.3 citations a year over 9 year(s) since 2019 |
| Impact for its field and year | 4 / 6 | Cited 9.3× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 2 / 6 | Cited by 9 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 3 / 4 | Cited 196 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 1 / 4 | Last-listed author Ying‐quan Wang: h-index 12 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 0 / 3 | Soochow University: institution h-index 635 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 0 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 1 institution(s) in 1 country — scores zero (affiliation lists can be incomplete) |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 31266451) |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Total | 68 / 100 | — |
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Jia, R. X., Liang, J. H., Xu, Y., & Wang, Y. Q. (2019). Effects of physical activity and exercise on the cognitive function of patients with Alzheimer disease: a meta-analysis. BMC geriatrics. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-019-1175-2
Vancouver
Jia RX, Liang JH, Xu Y, Wang YQ. Effects of physical activity and exercise on the cognitive function of patients with Alzheimer disease: a meta-analysis. BMC geriatrics. 2019. doi:10.1186/s12877-019-1175-2. PMID: 31266451.
BibTeX
@article{jia2019-31266451,
author = {Jia, R. X. and Liang, J. H. and Xu, Y. and Wang, Y. Q.},
title = {{Effects of physical activity and exercise on the cognitive function of patients with Alzheimer disease: a meta-analysis}},
journal = {BMC geriatrics},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1186/s12877-019-1175-2},
pmid = {31266451},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-019-1175-2}
}
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