Depressive symptoms and level of physical activity in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to determine the presence of depressive symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease, to assess whether there was an association between physical activity level and depressive symptoms in this population, and to assess whether more active patients had lower rates of depressive symptoms when compared with less active patients.


METHODS
The study included 37 patients with Alzheimer's disease and used the following instruments: the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia and the Baecke Questionnaire Modified for the Elderly. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine whether the data were normally distributed. The Spearman correlation test and the Mann-Whitney U-test was used. P-values less than 5% were considered statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of depressive symptoms in the sample was 35.13%. The Spearman correlation test verified the relationship between level of physical activity and depressive symptoms (rho = -0,4), and between the sports activities domain and depressive symptoms (rho = -0,4). Patients who were more active had lower depressive symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of depressive symptoms in the sample was 35.13%. Patients who were more active had lower rates of depressive symptoms.
Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University, Physical Activity and Aging Lab, LAFE, Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil.
Thays Martins
TM
Vital
Salma S Soleman
SS
Hernandez
Angelica Miki
AM
Stein
Marcelo
M
Garuffi
Danilla Icassatti
DI
Corazza
Larissa Pires
LP
de Andrade
José Luiz Riani
JL
Costa
Florindo
F
Stella
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D015995:Prevalence; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires