Cerga-Pashoja, A;
Lowery, D;
Bhattacharya, R;
Griffin, M;
Iliffe, S;
Lee, J;
Leonard, C;
... Warner, J; + view all
(2010)
Evaluation of exercise on individuals with dementia and their carers: a randomised controlled trial.
Trials
, 11
, Article 53. 10.1186/1745-6215-11-53.
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Abstract
Background: Almost all of the 820,000 people in the UK with dementia will experience Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD). However, research has traditionally focused on treating cognitive symptoms, thus neglecting core clinical symptoms that often have a more profound impact on living with dementia. Recent evidence (Kales et al, 2007; Ballard et al, 2009) indicates that the popular approach to managing BPSD - prescription of antipsychotic medication - can increase mortality and the risk of stroke in people with dementia as well as impair quality of life and accelerate cognitive decline. Consequently, there is a need to evaluate the impact that non-pharmacological interventions have on BPSD; we believe physical exercise is a particularly promising approach.Methods/Design: We will carry out a pragmatic, randomised, single-blind controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of exercise (planned walking) on the behavioural and psychological symptoms of individuals with dementia. We aim to recruit 146 people with dementia and their carers to be randomized into two groups; one will be trained in a structured, tailored walking programme, while the other will continue with treatment as usual. The primary outcome (BPSD) will be assessed with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) along with relevant secondary outcomes at baseline, 6 and 12 weeks.Discussion: Designing this study has been challenging both ethically and methodologically. In particular to design an intervention that is simple, measurable, safe, non-invasive and enjoyable has been testing and has required a lot of thought. Throughout the design, we have attempted to balance methodological rigour with study feasibility. We will discuss the challenges that were faced and overcome in this paper.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Evaluation of exercise on individuals with dementia and their carers: a randomised controlled trial |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/1745-6215-11-53 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1745-6215-11-53 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2010 Cerga-Pashoja et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | NEUROPSYCHIATRIC INVENTORY, OLDER-ADULTS, MOBILITY, IMPACT, FALLS |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Primary Care and Population Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1340177 |
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