Aquatic exercise for residential aged care adults with dementia: benefits and barriers to participation

Contact Information

Keywords

aquatic exercise; dementia; functional performance psychological well-being; residential aged care.

Abstract

Background: Pilot work by our group has demonstrated that aquatic exercise has valuable functional and psychosocial benefits for adults living in the residential aged care setting with dementia. The aim of the currents study was to advance this work by delivering the Watermemories Swimming Club aquatic exercise program to a more representative population of older, institutionalized adults with dementia. Methods: The benefits of 12 weeks of twice weekly participation in the Watermemories Swimming Club aquatic exercise program were assessed among an exercise and usual care control group of residential aged care adults with advanced dementia. A battery of physical and psychosocial measures were collected before and after the intervention period, and program implementation was also investigated. Results: Seven residential aged care facilities of 24 approached, agreed to participate and 56 residents were purposefully allocated to exercise or control. Twenty-three participants per group were included in the final analysis. Both groups experienced decreases in skeletal muscle index and lean mass (p < 0.001), but exercise stifled losses in muscle strength and transition into sarcopenic. Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia and activities of daily living approached significance (p = 0.06) with positive trends observed across other psychosocial measures. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the value of exercise participation, and specifically aquatic exercise in comparison to usual care for older, institutionalized adults with advanced dementia. However, it also highlights a number of barriers to participation. To overcome these barriers and ensure opportunity to residents increased provider and sector support is required.

Citation

Henwood, T., Neville, C., Baguley, C., & Beattie, E. (2017). Aquatic exercise for residential aged care adults with dementia: benefits and barriers to participation. International psychogeriatrics, 29(9), 1439–1449. https://doi.org/10.1017/S104161021700028X

DOI

10.1017/S104161021700028X

EWB Constructs:

(4) quality of life
(2)Life Satisfaction

EWB Measures:

Psychological Well-Being in Cognitively Impaired Persons (Burgener et al., Reference Burgener, Jirovec, Murrell and Barton1992)

data availability:

data availability details:

N/A

brain imaging paradigm:

N/A

brain region/circuit:

Exclusion Criteria:

Residents were excluded if they had an unstable or terminal illness, were wheel chair or bed bound, had dangerous or unpredictable behaviors, had a pacemaker, and were taking medications contradictory to exercise.

Inclusion Criteria

Inclusion criteria for the study were a past history of swimming, residing in a residential aged care facility (low or high care), with a diagnosis of dementia, able to walk a minimum of 10 m self-ambulating or with a walking cane or wheelie walker, and able to gain substitute decision maker consent/

Non-EWB Behavioral
Measures:

Revised Memory and Behavioral Problem Checklist
Cornell scale for depression in dementia
Geriatric anxiety inventory
Activities of daily living scale
Grip strength
Short Physical Performance Battery
Bioelectrical impendence analysis
Balance Outcome Measure for Elder Rehabilitation

First author:

Timothy Henwood

species:

Human

sample size:

study design:

(5) RCT

longitudinal data?

Yes

younger controls?

interventions:

Aquatic exercise

study population:

(2) patients with (pre)clinical dementia

sex (% female):

67.86%

ethnicity (%white)

not stated (Australia)

Age (mean, sd):

82.4, 6.6

biological/Physiological Measures:

N/A