Effect of an Aerobic Dancing Program on Sleep Quality for Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Poor Sleep: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: To investigate the effects of an aerobic dancing program on sleep quality of older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and poor sleep.

Design: The study adopted a single-blinded randomized controlled trial design.

Settings And Participants: Community-dwelling adults older than 60 years screened with the coexistence of MCI and poor sleep were included. A total of 89 eligible participants were randomly assigned to receive either the aerobic dancing program or the health education attention placebo control group.

Methods: The primary outcome was sleep quality, which was measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The second outcome was cognitive function, which was assessed by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Analysis followed the intention-to-treat principle. Generalized estimating equation was adopted to compare the changes in outcomes over the pre-post test periods between groups.

Results: The average adherence rate of the exercise program was 73.1%. No adverse events occurred during the study period. Participants in the intervention group had a significantly greater improvement in terms of general sleep quality (β, -1.74; 95% CI, -3.41 to -0.08; P = .04), sleep latency (β, -0.19; 95% CI, -0.37 to -0.02; P = .03), sleep duration (β, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.24 to 0.99; P = .04), sleep efficiency (β, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.07 to 1.12; P = .04), and cognitive function (β, 1.64; 95% CI, 0.43 to 2.86; P = .008) compared with the control group over the pre-post test periods.

Conclusions And Implications: This study demonstrated that a 16-week aerobic dancing program is feasible and effective in improving sleep quality and cognitive function among older adults with coexistence of MCI and poor sleep. The feasibility and effectiveness of this exercise program promoted the need to increase its application against deteriorating poor sleep and cognitive decline in older adults with MCI.