Aerobic exercise ameliorates cognitive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of aerobic exercise on cognitive function in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).


METHODS
Systematic review and meta-analysis of aerobic exercise intervention for cognitive function in older adults with MCI.


METHODS
PubMed, EMBASE, SinoMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang and Chinese Science and Technology Periodical (VIP) databases from their inception to 31 January 2015, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Cochrane Library, 2015, Issue 3) and the reference lists of all retrieved articles.


METHODS
Randomised controlled trials, older adults with MCI, aerobic exercises compared with no specific exercise intervention for global cognitive ability and any specific domains of cognition.


RESULTS
Meta-analysis was conducted with RevMan V.5.3 software using the fixed-effect model for the available data without significant heterogeneity, or the random-effect model was used if appropriate.


RESULTS
11 studies were identified involving 1497 participants. Meta-analysis showed that aerobic exercise significantly improved global cognitive ability (Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores: MD=0.98, 95% CI 0.5 to 1.45, p<0.0001; Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores: MD=2.7, 95% CI 1.11 to 4.29, p=0.0009); weakly, positively improve memory (immediately recall: SMD=0.29, 95% CI 0.13 to 0.46, p=0.0005; delay recall: SMD=0.22, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.34, p=0.0005). No significant improvement was found in other domains of cognition.


CONCLUSIONS
Aerobic exercise led to an improvement in global cognitive ability and had a positive effect with a small effect size on memory in people with MCI. However, owing to the limitations of the included studies, these findings should be interpreted cautiously.
College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shangjie University Town, Fuzhou, China.|College of Health Information Technology and Management, Shanghai University of Health & Medicine Science. Pudong New District, Shanghai, China.
Guohua
G
Zheng
College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shangjie University Town, Fuzhou, China.
Rui
R
Xia
College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shangjie University Town, Fuzhou, China.
Wenji
W
Zhou
College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shangjie University Town, Fuzhou, China.
Jing
J
Tao
Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shangjie University Town, Fuzhou, China.
Lidian
L
Chen
Aerobic fitness; Elderly people; Intervention efficacy; Meta-analysis; Neurology