Investigation of the effects of aerobic exercise, balance exercise and combined exercise applications on frailty, fall risk, reaction time and cognitive functions in dementia patients

The physical and cognitive effects of aerobic exercise in patients with dementia have been extensively investigated. Other exercise types with different physiological effects still need to be further investigated. The aim of this study was to determine the cognitive and physical effects of 6-week aerobic, balance and combined (aerobic-balance) exercise programmes on dementia. 31 mild-moderate dementia patients aged 65-90 years were divided into 3 groups as aerobic, balance and combined exercise and exercise programmes were applied to the groups. In order to provide a holistic approach to dementia, mental rotation, spatial orientation, visual memory and mental status were evaluated for cognitive functions, while fall risk, reaction time, lower extremity strength and frailty were evaluated for physical functions before and after the exercise programme. When the post-exercise values were compared with the pre-exercise values, it was found that only frailty decreased significantly in the aerobic exercise group (p=0.017). In the balance and combined exercise groups, mental rotation (p=0.005, p=0.032), spatial orientation (p=0.020, p=0.035), mental status (p=0.007, p=0. 014) and lower extremity strength (p=0. 010, p=0.005) significantly increased, while fall risk (p=0.005, p=0.005), reaction time (p=0.028, p=0.016) and frailty (p=0.020, p=0.009) significantly decreased. In addition, in contrast to combined and aerobic exercise, visual memory improved in the balance exercise group (p=0.016). These findings suggest that balance and combined exercises may have broader effects on dementia than aerobic exercise. Our results emphasise the importance of designing exercise programmes for patients with dementia by taking into account the cognitive and physical deficits of the patients and establishing a multidimensional treatment approach.