Physical activity, mastication and pain in dementia

• Netherlands

Dutch Alzheimer’s Association (Azheimer Nederland)

1000000

01-07-2007

60

• Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias

physical activity, exercise, mastication, oral care, teeth care, pain, cognition, behaviour, sleep-wake rhythm, mood, dementia, aging

An increase in physical activity, e.g. participation in an exercise program, appears to have a beneficial influence on cognitive functioning in older people and in patients in a very early stage of dementia. Effects of a relative short exercise program, i.e. 6 weeks, are inconsistent in a more advanced stage of dementia. Consequently, we started a longitudinal physical activity program that now runs for 1.5 years, to examine whether a much longer intervention period yields more beneficial effects on cognition and behaviour in a more advanced stage of dementia. One type of physical activity that receives hardly any attention with respect to memory is mastication. Results of animal experimental studies and a few human experimental studies with young and older persons without dementia show a close relationship between mastication and memory. Therefore, we started a project on the relationship between mastication, cognition, and behaviour in patients with dementia. Finally, pain is one of the most undertreated symptoms in dementia and may therefore be one of the causes of inactivity/passivity in older persons with dementia. In other words, physical activity and pain are closely related. For that reason, a project is implemented in which pain observation takes place daily; such an increase in the quality of caring highly contributes to a more effective treatment strategy.

• Clinical research