Exercise and protein drinks improve function in people with dementia

A simple combination of daily physical exercise and protein-rich nutritional drinks appears to offer significant health benefits for people with dementia. In a new study from Karolinska Institutet, not only did the participants' physical ability improve, but after three months the researchers also saw signs that they were able to manage more everyday tasks themselves. The study is published in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia.

Older people living in special housing often have an increased risk of malnutrition, muscle weakness, and frailty, which are factors that affect both health and quality of life. The OPEN study has previously shown that the program improves physical function and has positive effects on muscle mass and nutritional status. The new article analyzes retrospectively how the program can be linked to the participants' need for support in everyday life.

A total of 102 people from eight nursing homes in the Stockholm area participated. For twelve weeks, the intervention group was asked to do standing exercises several times a day and drink one to two nutritional drinks with extra protein. Among other things, the researchers monitored how much support the participants needed with tasks such as hygiene, dressing, and moving around.

When the researchers analyzed all the residents together, no clear differences were apparent. However, when the results were broken down by ward type, a different pattern emerged. In the dementia wards, participants who had followed the program had improved their abilities to such an extent that they required less care time compared to the control group.

One possible explanation is that people in dementia units had better physical conditions for improving their functional ability and were therefore able to do more things themselves after the intervention."

Anders Wimo, researcher at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet

The researchers also point out that interviews from previous sub-studies indicate that improved function can affect how much support a person needs in different situations. At the same time, they emphasize that the results should be interpreted with some caution, as the analyses are secondary.

"More studies are needed where care time is a primary outcome and where organizational factors, such as staffing levels and work routines, are closely monitored," says Anders Wimo.

The study was conducted by an interprofessional research group affiliated with Karolinska Institutet and Stockholms Sjukhem. It was funded by the Gamla Tjänarinnor Foundation and Danone Nutricia Research, which provided the nutritional drinks but did not participate in the data collection or final analyses. The researchers report no competing interests other than that one of the authors is the copyright holder of the measuring instrument used.