Dementia And Physical Activity (DAPA) trial of moderate to high intensity exercise training for people with dementia: Randomised controlled trial

DAPA Trial Group, Sarah E. Lamb, Bart Sheehan, Nicky Atherton, Vivien Nichols, Helen Collins, Dipesh Mistry, Sukhdeep Dosanjh, Anne Marie Slowther, Iftekhar Khan, Stavros Petrou, Ranjit Lall, P. Zeh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

262 Citations (Scopus)
31 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the effect of a moderate to high intensity aerobic and strength exercise training programme on cognitive impairment and other outcomes in people with mild to moderate dementia. Design: Multicentre, pragmatic, investigator masked, randomised controlled trial. Setting: National Health Service primary care, community and memory services, dementia research registers, and voluntary sector providers in 15 English regions. Participants: 494 people with dementia: 329 were assigned to an aerobic and strength exercise programme and 165 were assigned to usual care. Random allocation was 2:1 in favour of the exercise arm. Interventions: Usual care plus four months of supervised exercise and support for ongoing physical activity, or usual care only. Interventions were delivered in community gym facilities and NHS premises. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was score on the Alzheimer's disease assessment scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) at 12 months. Secondary outcomes included activities of daily living, neuropsychiatric symptoms, health related quality of life, and carer quality of life and burden. Physical fitness (including the six minute walk test) was measured in the exercise arm during the intervention. Results: The average age of participants was 77 (SD 7.9) years and 301/494 (61%) were men. By 12 months the mean ADAS-cog score had increased to 25.2 (SD 12.3) in the exercise arm and 23.8 (SD 10.4) in the usual care arm (adjusted between group difference -1.4, 95% confidence interval -2.6 to -0.2, P=0.03). This indicates greater cognitive impairment in the exercise group, although the average difference is small and clinical relevance uncertain. No differences were found in secondary outcomes or preplanned subgroup analyses by dementia type (Alzheimer's disease or other), severity of cognitive impairment, sex, and mobility. Compliance with exercise was good. Over 65% of participants (214/329) attended more than three quarters of scheduled sessions. Six minute walking distance improved over six weeks (mean change 18.1 m, 95% confidence interval 11.6 m to 24.6 m). Conclusion: A moderate to high intensity aerobic and strength exercise training programme does not slow cognitive impairment in people with mild to moderate dementia. The exercise training programme improved physical fitness, but there were no noticeable improvements in other clinical outcomes.

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages11
JournalBMJ (Online)
Volume361
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 May 2018

Bibliographical note

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

Funder

This trial was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme 09/80/04) and received additional support from the NIHR Local Clinical Research Networks and NIHR Oxford CLAHRC and
Biomedical Research Centre.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Dementia And Physical Activity (DAPA) trial of moderate to high intensity exercise training for people with dementia: Randomised controlled trial'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this