Abstract

Dementia is currently a major healthcare problem. As our population ages, the number of people suffering from dementia increases yearly. This comes at both a large human and financial cost. Currently, there is no cure for dementia but medication can help to delay the progress of the disease although this has varying degrees of success – other treatment options which involve the patient more directly in their own care are therefore a necessity.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI – defined as a level of cognitive impairment which although noticeable, does not impact sufficiently on an individual’s life to be diagnosed as dementia) is seen a stepping stone in the development of dementia, with large numbers of people diagnosed going on to develop dementia over the coming years. One of the main symptoms of dementia and MCI is the detrimental effect that it has on cognitive processes (for example memory, planning, perception and orientation). Within an elderly age group, research suggests that increasing physical activity can have beneficial effects on cognitive processes in later life and this may also be the case in individuals with MCI. This can also be protective as people who are more physically active in their younger years are at less risk of developing dementia as they get older.

Unfortunately, many of the studies carried out so far in groups with MCI have not been performed to a high methodological standard, often with mixed groups of dementia participants with different diagnoses of dementia (it is likely that different types of dementia will respond differently to physical activity, just as they do with medications prescribed), in different care settings and without comparable cognitive assessment tools. This means that there is no current clinical advice for individuals with MCI, their caregivers and healthcare professionals as to what sort of physical activity may be beneficial to them as an alternative to current treatments.

We propose to develop a behaviour change program which promotes the use of physical activity to maintain cognitive function and prevent cognitive decline in older adults at risk of dementia (those with MCI). This will aim to change the behaviour of both the individual with MCI and the healthcare professionals responsible for their care with the ultimate aim that physical activity can be offered as a healthcare ‘prescription’ to individuals.

Aims

We propose to develop a behaviour change program which promotes the use of physical activity to maintain cognitive function and prevent cognitive decline in older adults at risk of dementia (those with MCI). This will aim to change the behaviour of both the individual with MCI and the healthcare professionals responsible for their care with the ultimate aim that physical activity can be offered as a healthcare ‘prescription’ to individuals.