Table 6.

Effect of exercise on cognitive outcomes and disability in dementia

Certainty assessment							No. of patients		Effect		Certainty	Importance
No. of studies	Study design	Risk of bias	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Imprecision	Other considerations	Intervention	Standard care	Relative (95% CI)	Absolute (95% CI)
Global cognition (in AD) (mixed physical activity intervention)
13	Randomized controlled trials	Very seriousa	Very seriousb	Not serious	Not serious	Publication bias strongly suspectedc	342	331	–	SMD 1.1 SD higher (0.65 higher to 1.64 higher)	⨁◯◯◯ Very low	Critical
Global cognition (in dementia) (mixed physical activity intervention)
19	Randomized controlled trials	Not serious	Very seriousb	Not serious	Not serious	None	433	405	–	SMD 0.48 SD higher (0.22 higher to 0.74 higher)	⨁⨁◯◯ Low	Critical
ADL (physical activity interventions home-based)
3	Randomized controlled trials	Not serious	Seriousa	Not serious	Seriousb	None	94	86	–	SMD 0.77 SD higher (0.17 higher to 1.37 higher)	⨁⨁◯◯ Low	Critical
Disability in ADL (in dementia) (physical activity mixed interventions)
11	Randomized controlled trials	Very seriousd	Very seriouse	Not serious	Not serious	None	730	581	–	SMD 0.5 SD higher (0.03 lower to 1.02 higher)	⨁◯◯◯ Very low	Critical

CI Confidence interval, AD Alzheimer’s disease, SMD Standardized mean difference, SD Standard deviation, ADL Activities of daily living

^aOne or more of the three criteria (randomization, masking, drop-out rate > 30%) is not met in > 30% of trials included

^bI² >  = 75%

^cEgger’s test (p value) < 0.0001

^dOne or more of the three criteria (randomization, masking, drop-out rate < 30%) is not met in 10–30% of trials included

^eI² between 50% and 75%