Artigo Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

Role of physical activity on the maintenance of cognition and activities of daily living in elderly with Alzheimer's disease

2008; Thieme Medical Publishers (Germany); Volume: 66; Issue: 2b Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/s0004-282x2008000300007

ISSN

1678-4227

Autores

Cynthia Arcoverde, Andréa Camaz Deslandes, A. Bustamante Rangel, Andreza Rangel, Robson Pavão, Fortunée Nigri, Eliasz Engelhardt, Jerson Laks,

Tópico(s)

Nutrition and Health in Aging

Resumo

BACKGROUND: The practice of physical activities has proved to be an efficient strategy in the improvement of independency and cognitive functions in the elderly with Alzheimer's disease (AD). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relation between the practice of physical activity, cognition and activities of daily living (ADL) of patients with AD. METHOD: The cognitive and physical aspects and ADL were evaluated of 37 elders (19 normal controls, 11 sedentary with AD and 7 active with AD). RESULTS: The variable that best predicts the cognitive state (MMSE) is the duration of disease for the AD sedentary group and Lawton's Scale for the AD active group. We observed a correlation between MMSE score and duration of disease in the sedentary group and between MMSE and ADL in the active group. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that physical and cognitive stimulation in patients with AD can contribute to decrease cognitive and functional decline.

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