“Camminando e Leggendo ...   Ricordo” (Walking and Reading ...   I Remember): Prevention of Frailty Through the Promotion of Physical Activity and Reading in People with Mild Cognitive Impairment. Results from the TREDEM Registry

Abstract

Background: Frailty is a condition of increased vulnerability to exogenous and endogenous stressors, which is correlated with aging, functional decline, institutionalization, hospitalization, and mortality. Given the multifaceted nature of frailty, programs aimed at its prevention are recommended to act on multiple domains. Objective: The present intervention program aimed at assessing the effects of combined physical and cognitive training in older people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and at investigating how their frailty status changed over one year of follow-up. Methods: Two-hundred and seven participants were recruited among outpatients of the Cognitive Impairment Center who agreed to receive a comprehensive assessment. Forty-six participants, who joined a structured program of physical activity and group readings for a period of one year, were defined as active. The remaining 161, who decided not to engage in those activities, were considered controls. In both groups, frailty status was assessed at baseline and over one year of follow-up. Results: Control participants showed twice the risk of becoming frail at 12 months compared with those in the active group. Participants in the active group had more than three times the probability of improving their frailty status compared with the control group from T0 to T12. Age and NPI scores were significantly associated with worsening frailty status. When analyses were restricted to participants who were robust at baseline, the frailty status varied significantly between groups over time. Conclusion: Findings of the present study confirm the beneficial effects of physical activity and reading to prevent frailty in older people with MCI.

Cognitive Frailty: An Update

“…It has been possible to verify some important advances in research on cognitive frailty in the scientific literature. Links between cognitive frailty and years of education continue to highlight the relationships between low wealth, low educational attainment and negative health events (Gallucci et al, 2020 ; Ruan et al, 2020 ; Wongtrakulruang et al, 2020 ), and the mediational role of active engagement in the relationship between cognitive frailty and falls (Zhao et al, 2020 ) appears as an emerging research topic. It is desirable that research on cognitive frailty progressively incorporates other relevant proxies of cognitive reserve, such as leisure activity and work complexity, as well as global measures of the cognitive reserve construct.…”

“…Ruan et al ( 2020 ) observed lower rates of physical and cognitive frailty in participants with an intermediate educational level (6–12 years) than in participants with a lower educational level. Similarly, Gallucci et al ( 2020 ) reported that education seems to be a protective factor in the incidence of frailty, with more years of education associated with robust or pre-frailty and low education associated with frailty. Wongtrakulruang et al ( 2020 ) associated low education level (primary school or less) a with higher risk of MCI and PF/pre-frailty.…”

“…Adding cognitive intervention to physical exercise and due to the mutual influence between physical and cognitive decline, multicomponent programmes appear to be important for preventing and reducing cognitive frailty. Gallucci et al ( 2020 ) found that frailty status was likely to improve by more than three times in participants of a 12-months structured programme including two/days week physical activity and a bimonthly group reading activity than in a control group who decided not to engage in the programme. Romera-Liebana et al ( 2018 ) found that a multifaceted intervention including exercise training, intake of hyperproteic nutritional shakes, memory training and medication review was effective in reversing frailty 3 and 18 months after the intervention, improving mobility, balance, stretching, muscle strength and all dimensions of a neuropsychological battery and also reducing the number of medication prescriptions.…”

Leisure-Related Social Work Interventions for Patients with Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The other two articles [31,34] also had corresponding requirements for participants' age and physical condition. Other articles [38,40] identified research participants according to the pretest results of cognitive impairment scales at institutions, in communities, in apartments, and at other institutions that specialize in caring for older adults with cognitive impairment.…”

The Effect of Resistance Training for Elderly with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Frailty: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Targeted exercise programs have been shown to dramatically improve memory function and slow the rate of cognitive decline in people with MCI [22] . Furthermore, these therapies are successful in delaying and avoiding the onset of frailty [23,24] . With regard to MCI and Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD), the 'Physical Activity Guideline for Older Australians' deals specifically with these conditions.…”