Depressive symptoms and level of physical activity in patients with Alzheimer's disease

AIM: The purpose of this study was to determine the presence of depressive symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease, to assess whether there was an association between physical activity level and depressive symptoms in this population, and to assess whether more active patients had lower rates of depressive symptoms when compared with less active patients. METHODS: The study included 37 patients with Alzheimer's disease and used the following instruments: the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia and the Baecke Questionnaire Modified for the Elderly. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine whether the data were normally distributed. The Spearman correlation test and the Mann-Whitney U-test was used. P-values less than 5% were considered statistically significant. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The prevalence of depressive symptoms in the sample was 35.13%. The Spearman correlation test verified the relationship between level of physical activity and depressive symptoms (rho = -0,4), and between the sports activities domain and depressive symptoms (rho = -0,4). Patients who were more active had lower depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of depressive symptoms in the sample was 35.13%. Patients who were more active had lower rates of depressive symptoms.