Clinical trial NCT00979069: Aerobic Exercise to Improve Executive Language Function In Older Adults
Official title: Aerobic Exercise to Improve Executive Language Function in Older Adults
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Aging
Lead sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Sponsor class: FED
First posted: 2009-09-17
Enrollment: 20
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 65
Maximum age (years): 89
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to see if exercise can improve brain function in older adults

Detailed description: Recently, considerable attention has been devoted to examining the beneficial relationship between cognition and aerobic exercise in older adults. Specifically, the effects are thought to involve higher order cognitive processes, such as working memory, switching between tasks, and inhibiting irrelevant information, all of which are thought to be sub- served, in part, by the frontal lobes (Colcombe et al., 2006). Importantly, these areas also are most susceptible to age-related decline (Raz, 2000) and are essential resources for language production (Kemper \& Sumner, 2001; Murray \& Lenz, 2001). However, despite promising cognitive improvement, changes in frontally-mediated executive language functions have been widely ignored. This is unfortunate considering impaired word retrieval compromises communicative effectiveness, leading to frustration, depression, and withdrawal. Perhaps more importantly, communication ineffectiveness, particularly in the elderly, leads to difficulties interacting with health care professionals leading to further health care burdens. Since cognition, and specifically word retrieval difficulties, usually remain untreated, it is important to find treatment strategies for minimizing these deficits. Therefore, the short-term goal and the purpose of this proposal is to examine the potential of aerobic exercise to improve executive language function in older adults.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Consent of participants' primary health care physicians to participate in the aerobic exercise.
* Patients must not have participated in any consistent exercise program or experimental study for at least 3 months prior to enrollment.
* They must be capable of providing informed consent and complying with the trial procedures.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Demented as defined by the Modified Mini Mental Status Exam.
* Unalterable travel schedules.
* Site accessibility constraints.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Executive Language Functions
timeFrame: number of correct words at pre and post separated by 12 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Gainesville
country: United States
facility: North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, Gainesville, FL
state: Florida
city: Decatur
country: United States
facility: Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur, GA
state: Georgia
Study officials:
affiliation: Atlanta VA Medical and Rehab Center, Decatur, GA
name: Joe R Nocera, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Nocera JR, McGregor KM, Hass CJ, Crosson B. Spin exercise improves semantic fluency in previously sedentary older adults. J Aging Phys Act. 2015 Jan;23(1):90-4. doi: 10.1123/japa.2013-0107. Epub 2014 Jan 14.