Network meta-analysis reveals dance exercise alleviates depressive symptoms in mild cognitive impairment, highlighting its therapeutic potential as a targeted non-pharmacological therapy.
Key Points
To evaluate and compare the relative efficacy of specific exercise modalities for reducing depressive symptoms in individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.
Systematically searched for randomized controlled trials evaluating exercise modalities targeting depressive symptoms in patients with mild cognitive impairment.
Conducted a Bayesian network meta-analysis using standardized mean differences across depression scales and ranked interventions using surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) metrics.
Included 19 randomized controlled trials evaluating nine distinct exercise modalities.
Dance exercise was the only intervention demonstrating statistically significant improvement over control (SMD = -0.51, 95% CrI: -0.84 to -0.16) and held the highest rank probability (SUCRA = 80.71%).
Analyses revealed moderate overall heterogeneity alongside local inconsistency in several specific comparisons.