P4‐171: AEROBIC EXERCISE IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: THE FIT‐AD TRIAL

Abstract

Aerobic exercise holds promise for treating cognitive impair- ment and altering brain atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Cognitive impairment is the hallmark ofADand contributes to other symptoms, result- ing in poor outcomes, including poor quality of life, early institutionalization, and high costs. Exercise studies inADare just emerging and have produced conflicting findings on cognitive outcomes, largely due to low levels of exercise, poor delivery of aerobic exercise, and lack of con- trols. Methods: This randomized controlled trial (RCT) will investigate the effects of a novel 6-month, individualized, moderate-intensity stationary- cycling intervention on cognition and hippocampal volume in community- dwelling older adultswithmild-to-moderateAD. Ninety subjects will be ran- domized to the 6-month cycling intervention or attention control (shamexer- cise) groups using permuted blocks of 3 and 6 subjects randomly and a 2:1 allocation ratio, and followed for another 6months (see Figure 1).Acombined heart rate reserve and perceived exertionmethod shown to be feasible and reli- able in our preliminary studieswill be used to prescribemoderate intensity ex- ercise. Cognition will be measured by the AD Assessment Scale-Cognition (ADAS-Cog) at baseline, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Hippocampal volume will be measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at baseline, 6, and 12 months. The sample sizewill give us 80%power to detect at least a 2.5-point difference in within-group changes in ADAS-Cog at 6 months for the inter- vention group. Results: This study is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) from 8/1/2013 to 7/31/2018, and is currently enrolling. Findings from the study will determine the immediate and long-term effects of the cycling intervention on cognition and hippocampal volume in AD over 1 year. Conclusions: This study is testing a rigorously-designed and delivered moderate-intensity of aerobic exercise intervention in a clinical AD population. Findings will provide important data to address the critical gap in knowledge of the therapeutic effects of aerobic exercise in AD and offer a potentially effective treatment for AD