Role of physical activity on the maintenance of cognition and activities of daily living in elderly with Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND The practice of physical activities has proved to be an efficient strategy in the improvement of independency and cognitive functions in the elderly with Alzheimer's disease (AD). OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relation between the practice of physical activity, cognition and activities of daily living (ADL) of patients with AD. METHOD The cognitive and physical aspects and ADL were evaluated of 37 elders (19 normal controls, 11 sedentary with AD and 7 active with AD). RESULTS The variable that best predicts the cognitive state (MMSE) is the duration of disease for the AD sedentary group and Lawton's Scale for the AD active group. We observed a correlation between MMSE score and duration of disease in the sedentary group and between MMSE and ADL in the active group. CONCLUSION Our study showed that physical and cognitive stimulation in patients with AD can contribute to decrease cognitive and functional decline.