Severity of frailty and the outcome of exercise intervention among participants with Alzheimer disease : A sub-group analysis of a randomized controlled trial

Introduction: To investigate how frailty status affects the outcome of exercise intervention among home-dwelling participants with Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods: This is a sub-group analysis of a randomized controlled trial. In this trial, home-dwelling participants with AD received either home-based or group-based exercise twice a week for one year (n = 129); the control group received normal care (n = 65). Both the intervention and control group were subdivided into two groups according to modified Fried criteria: prefrail (0-1 criteria) and advanced frailty (2-5 criteria). The Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and number of falls per person-years served as outcome measures. Results: Whereas there was no significant difference in FIM between the prefrail intervention (PRI) and control (PRC) groups at 3 or 6 months, the PRI group deteriorated significantly slower at 12 months (-6.6 [95% CI -8.6 to -4.5] for PRI and -11.1 [95% CI -13.9 to -8.3] for PRC; P = 0.010). Similarly, there was no significant difference between the advanced frailty intervention (AFI) and control (AFC) groups at 3 months, but the difference became significant at 6 months (-8.1 [95% CI -11.1 to -5.2] for AFI and -15.5 [95% CI -20.0 to -11.1] for AFC; P = 0.007) and at 12 months (-8.9 [95% CI -11.9 to -5.9] for AFI and -15.3 [95% CI -20.2 to -10.3] for AFC; P = 0.031). There was also a significant difference in the number of falls in favor of PRI and AFI groups compared to their respective control groups. Conclusion: A long-term exercise intervention benefited people with AD regardless of their stage of frailty. Trial registration: : ACTRN12608000037303. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS and European Union Geriatric Medicine Society. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe