Effects of Exercise in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

The authors aimed to provide an overview of the evidence on the effects of exercise in people with Alzheimer's disease through a comprehensive review of the existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses. A literature search was performed in CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed, SPORTDiscus, Scopus, and Web of Science databases according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The AMSTAR-2-Tool was used for the quality assessment. Twenty-three reviews fulfilled the criteria. Most of the reviews investigated the effects of aerobic exercise on Alzheimer's disease symptoms. The largest effects of exercise were seen in terms of improved cognition by multiple exercises. The majority of the reviews were rated as being of moderate quality and none were classified as having high quality. Exercise is an effective way to treat Alzheimer's disease symptoms and has a low incidence of related adverse events. As most reviews were evaluated as low-moderate quality, caution is needed in the interpretation of the results.