Discussion
Alzheimer’s disease, NCD, dementia
NEURODEGENERATIVE DISORDERS, MINOR, RECRUITMENT, BRAIN, SYNDROMES
The results from this study suggest that a 6-month MT physical exercise intervention was not effective in improving cognitive function, neuropsychiatric symptomatology, and quality of life of older adults diagnosed with major NCD. Previous studies attested MT effectiveness in improving individuals with NCD lower body function,Previous meta-analytic and systematic review studies indicated that physical exercise interventions might improve cognitive function, or slow down the decline in individuals with major NCD; still, findings have been inconsistent across studies.Knowing if physical exercise improves or not global cognition is important but insufficient to healthcare providers in advising this type of intervention.As for the non-observed effects on neuropsychiatric symptoms, worthwhile referring is the instrument used for data collection. The NPI test is the most widely used instrument in nonpharmacologic interventions to determine its benefit on neuropsychiatric syndromes that occur in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disordersIn terms of the effects of the MT physical exercise on the quality of life, our study findings showed promising results for the QoL-AD total scores, which suggests a potential positive effect. A larger and more homogenous sample (i.e., in terms of stage and subtype of dementia) could have resulted in a statistically significant interaction factor between group and time. According to Ojagbemi and Akin-OjagbemiThe quasi-experimental design and the small sample size need to be acknowledged as major limitations of our study; therefore, results should be interpreted with caution and not generalized. Due to difficulties during the recruitment process, some participants were tentatively included in the “Body & Brain” project even if their diagnosis of major NCD was still under study at baseline evaluations; for this reason, some participants who have completed the intervention were excluded due to the later confirmation of a minor NCD diagnose, increasing the already high dropout rate. Moreover, possibly as a consequence of the delayed implementation of the national strategy for dementia,