New Guidelines Recommend Exercise for MCI

Exercising twice a week could help to improve the memory of people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), according to new Guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).

In order to update the 2001 AAN guideline on MCI, researchers reviewed articles on the prevalence, prognosis, and treatment of MCI. They found that MCI prevalence was 6.7% for ages 60–64, 8.4% for 65–69, 10.1% for 70–74, 14.8% for 75–79, and 25.2% for 80–84.

While no high-quality evidence supporting pharmacologic treatment for MCI exists, exercise training was shown to likely improve cognitive measures.

Among their recommendations:

• Validated tools should be used to assess for MCI (Level B)
• Patients with MCI should be evaluated for modifiable risk factors (Level B)
• Regular exercise should be recommended to patients with MCI (Level B)
• Cognitive training may also be recommended (Level C)

The full guidelines are published in the journal Neurology.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Petersen RC, Lopez O, Armstrong MJ, et al. Practice guideline update summary: Mild cognitive impairment [published online December 27, 2017]. Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000004826.