TABLE 3.
Evidence of non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive impairment in older adults.
| Study | Interventions | Condition | Study design | Main findings |
| Bahar-Fuchs et al., 2019 | Cognitive training | Mild to moderate dementia | Meta-analysis, including 32 studies (2,462 participants) | Positive effects on global cognition, verbal semantic fluency. |
| Gates et al., 2019 | Computerized cognitive training | MCI | Meta-analysis, including 8 studies (660 participants) | Uncertain. |
| Hu et al., 2021 | Computerized cognitive training | MCI and dementia | Meta-analysis, including 12 studies (participants) | Positive effect on cognitive function |
| Woods et al., 2012 | Cognitive stimulation | Dementia | Meta-analysis, including 15 studies (718 participants) | Positive effect on cognitive function |
| Cai et al., 2019 | Transcranial direct current stimulation | Mild to moderate AD | Meta-analysis, including 7 studies (146 participants) | Positive effect on cognitive function |
| Chu et al., 2021 | Transcranial direct current stimulation | AD,MCI | Meta-analysis, including 27 studies (1,070 participants) | Positive effect on improving global cognition |
| Cheng et al., 2018 | Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation | Mild to moderate AD | Meta-analysis, including 7 studies (194 participants) | Improved cognitive function in mild to moderate AD. |
| Xie et al., 2021 | Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation | MCI and early AD | Meta-analysis, including 12 studies (4,380 participants) | Improved cognitive function in MCI and early AD. The improvement could last for 1 month and MCI patients had more benefits. |
| Coelho-Júnior et al., 2021 | Mediterranean diet | Older adults | Meta-analysis, including 53 studies | A better global cognition and memory. No association in the incidence of mobility problems, MCI, and dementia. |
| Lv et al., 2021 | Healthy elderly; AD; Major depressive disorder; Minimal hepatic encephalopathy; Fibromyalgia | Meta-analysis, including 7 studies (320 participants) | Probiotics | Enhanced cognitive function; Single strain is better than multiple strains. |
| López-Ortiz et al., 2021 | Exercise | AD | Meta-analysis, including 28 studies (1,337 participants) | Benefit effect. |
| Jia et al., 2019 | Physical activity and exercise | AD | Meta-analysis, including 13 studies (673 participants) | Improvement in cognition. |
| Angevaren et al., 2008 | Physical activity | Older people without known cognitive impairment | Meta-analysis, including 11 studies (620 participants) | Beneficial for cognitive function. |
| Law et al., 2020 | Physical exercise | MCI, dementia | Meta-analysis, including 46 studies (5,099 participants) | Reduced the decline in global cognition in MCI or dementia. |
| Sanders et al., 2019 | Aerobic, anaerobic, multicomponent, or psychomotor exercise | Older adults | Meta-analysis, including 36 studies (2,007 participants) | Improved executive function and memory. Short session duration and high frequency predict a higher effect on cognitive impairments. |
| Chan et al., 2020 | Latin, ballroom, and aerobic dances | MCI | Meta-analysis, including 5 studies (358 participants) | Improved global cognition, attention, immediate and delayed recall, and visuospatial ability. |
| Hewston et al., 2021 | Dance | Older adults | Meta-analysis, including 11 studies (1,412 participants) | Improved global cognitive function and executive function. |
| Ruiz-Muelle and López-Rodríguez, 2019 | Dance | AD | Meta-analysis, including 12 studies (349 participants) | Positive effect on physical and cognitive function, and quality of life. |
| Ngandu et al., 2015 | Multi-domain intervention of diet, exercise, cognitive training, and vascular risk monitoring | Older adults | RCT (1,190 participants) | Improve or maintain cognitive functioning in at-risk elderly people from the general population. |
| Hoevenaar-Blom et al., 2021 | A multi-domain intervention that targeted vascular risk factors (smoking, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, overweight, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes) | Older adults | RCT (3,526 participants) | Not reduce dementia incidence in old age. |
| Sanders et al., 2019 | Isolated supplementation with omega-3 fatty acid, an isolated multi-domain intervention (consisting of nutritional counseling, physical exercise, cognitive stimulation) or a combination of the two interventions | Older adults | RCT (1,680 participants) | No effect on the cognitive decline over 3 years was found. |
| Hafdi et al., 2021 | Multi-domain interventions | Older adults | Meta-analysis, including 9 studies (18,452 participants) | Reducing dementia incidents, a small improvement in cognitive function. |
| Gavelin et al., 2021 | Combined physical and cognitive training | Older adults | Meta-analysis, including 41 studies (4,052 participants) | Small effect and statistically significant for overall cognitive and physical function. Simultaneous training was best, followed by sequential combinations and cognitive training alone. |
| Liu et al., 2021 | Nutrition and exercise interventions | MCI | Meta-analysis, including 6 studies (1,039 participants) | Improve global cognitive function. No difference in MMSE scores, memory, executive function, attention, and information processing speed across groups. |