Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-12-2025

Identifier

DOI: 10.1002/trc2.70115; PMCID: PMC12162260

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of death in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). Participation in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) may prevent or delay the onset of AD. Therefore, we evaluated the potential effectiveness of a remotely delivered home-based group exercise (≈8/group) to increase daily MVPA and cardiorespiratory fitness in adults with DS to a level that may be associated with delaying AD in adults with DS.

METHODS: Adults with DS ((n = 81, age ≈27 years 55% female) without dementia were randomized (2:2:1) to a 12-month intervention, which included 40-min exercise sessions scheduled once (remote low (RL), n = 32) or 3 times per week (remote high (RH), n = 34) plus twice monthly 20-min individual remotely delivered support/education sessions or to a control arm who attended twice monthly support/education sessions only (SE, n = 15). MVPA (minutes/day) was assessed by accelerometer, and cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2 Peak, mL/kg/min) was assessed using a maximal treadmill test.

RESULTS: Participant retention at 12 months was 100%. Attendance at exercise and support/education sessions averaged ~85% and ~86%, respectively. Linear mixed modeling revealed no significant differences in change in MVPA from baseline to 12 months between the RH (10 min/day) and the RL arms (2 min/day, p = 0.06) or the RH and SE arms (1 min/day p = 0.13). The change in VO₂ Peak differed significantly between the RH (2.0 ± 4.6 mL/kg/min) and RL arms (-1.1 ± 3.0 mL/kg/min, p = 0.04) but not between the RH and SE arms (1.2 ± 5.3 mL/kg/min, p = 0.85).

DISCUSSION: Our results suggest that remotely delivered group exercise (3 times/week) in conjunction with twice-monthly support/education is feasible and may increase daily MVPA and cardiorespiratory fitness to a level that may be associated with improvements in health and cognitive parameters in adults with DS.

CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: This trial was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Kansas Medical Center and was registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04048759).

HIGHLIGHTS: Evidence suggests that exercise may delay Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the general population, but its impact on adults with Down syndrome (DS) remains unknown.Adults attended remote exercise sessions either 1 or 3 times a week or received basic education about exercise.Those who attend exercise sessions 3 times a week increased their physical activity by 70 min per week.Those who attend exercise sessions 3 times a week improve their cardiorespiratory fitness.Remote exercise can be used in future AD prevention trials in adults with DS.

Journal Title

Alzheimers Dement (N Y)

Volume

11

Issue

2

First Page

70115

Last Page

70115

PubMed ID

40520478

Keywords

Alzheimer's; Down syndrome; dementia; exercise; fitness; intervention; physical activity; remote delivery

Comments

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Publisher's Link: https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/trc2.70115

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