Meta-Analysis of Exercise Effects on Cognitive Function in Alzheimer's Patients

A 2025 meta-analysis and meta-regression study by Feng Xu synthesizes data from 23 randomized controlled trials involving 1,868 adults aged 60 and above. It evaluates the impact of exercise prescription parameters on cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease patients. The study was published on figshare in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Model the dose-response relationship between weekly exercise frequency and cognitive improvement (g effect size).
• Analyze moderating effects of exercise parameters like single-session duration, total weekly duration, and intervention duration on global cognitive function.
• Identify a potential critical window for short-term improvement using data on intervention phases sustained beyond 12 weeks.
• Explore associations between patient age and cognitive outcomes across the synthesized trial data.

Strengths

• Data synthesized from 23 randomized controlled trials, providing a structured evidence base.
• Includes results from 1,868 adult participants, offering a substantial sample for meta-analysis.
• Employs multilevel meta-analysis and multivariate meta-regression for robust statistical evaluation.

Limitations

• The dataset is a 56.4 KB document summarizing results, not the raw trial-level data, limiting re-analysis.
• Findings are based on aggregated study results, which may mask individual patient variability and trial heterogeneity.
• Temporal coverage of the underlying studies is not specified, potentially including older trials.

Provenance

Source

Systematic review of eight databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Emcare, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Ebsco, and SPORTDiscus.

Collection Method

Meta-analysis and meta-regression of published randomized controlled trials.

Time Range

Literature search covered studies up to August 2025.

Freshness

Literature search was conducted up to August 2025, and the summary was last updated in April 2026.

Geography

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