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Health-related physical indicators and self-rated quality of life in older adults with neurocognitive disorder

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to identify the association between health-related physical indicators—sarcopenia-related factors, physical fitness, independence in activities of daily living (ADL) and habitual physical activity—and self-rated quality of life (QoL) in people with neurocognitive disorder (NCD).

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 115 participants (78.22 ± 7.48 years; 74.8% female) clinically diagnosed with NCD. Self-rated QoL was evaluated using The Quality of Life-Alzheimer’s Disease (QoL-AD). Dual energy X-ray Absorptiometry, handgrip strength, Short Physical Performance Battery, and the 6-m Walk test were used to assess sarcopenia-related factors. Senior Fitness Test and One Leg Balance test, Barthel Index, Baecke Modified Habitual Physical Activity Questionnaire were used to determine physical fitness, independence in ADL and physical activity, respectively. Regressions analyses were performed to examine associations between these variables and QoL-AD.

Results

Data from univariable linear regression analysis revealed that self-rated QoL was associated with sarcopenia-related factors (lower body function, handgrip strength, gait speed, and appendicular skeletal muscle mass index—ASMI), physical fitness (upper-and-lower-body strength, agility/dynamic balance, cardiorespiratory fitness and body mass index), habitual physical activity and independence in ADL. Results from multivariable regression analysis showed that ASMI (B = 1.846, 95% CI 0.165–3.527, p = 0.032) and lower body function (B = 0.756, 95% CI 0.269–1.242, p = 0.003) were positively associated with self-rated QoL. These variables explained 20.1% of the variability seen in self-rated QoL, controlling for age, sex, marital status and education.

Conclusion

Sarcopenia-related factors, namely lower body function and ASMI, should be acknowledged in future research studies as critical health-related indicators associated with QoL in people with NCD.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov—identifier number NCT04095962.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all study participants and their caregivers, and Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude.

Funding

This work was supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology: CIAFEL—Research Centre in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure (FCT/UIDB/00617/2020), “Body and Brain” Project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031808) and Ph.D. Grants (SFRH/BD/136635/2018) to FM and (2020.05911.BD) to DB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIAFEL, Centro de Investigação em Atividade Física, Saúde e Lazer, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Flávia Borges-Machado, Duarte Barros & Joana Carvalho

  2. Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Laetitia Teixeira

  3. CINTESIS, Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Serviços de Saúde, Porto, Portugal

    Laetitia Teixeira

  4. Departamento de Educação e Psicologia, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Óscar Ribeiro

  5. Faculdade de Desporto, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Joana Carvalho

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  1. Flávia Borges-Machado
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  2. Duarte Barros
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  3. Laetitia Teixeira
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  4. Óscar Ribeiro
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  5. Joana Carvalho
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Correspondence to Joana Carvalho.

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The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethical Committee of the Faculty of Sports of the University of Porto (Ref CEFADE22.2018). The trial was registered with the US National Institutes of Health Clinical Trials Registry (ClinicalTrials.gov—identifier number NCT04095962).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Borges-Machado, F., Barros, D., Teixeira, L. et al. Health-related physical indicators and self-rated quality of life in older adults with neurocognitive disorder. Qual Life Res 30, 2255–2264 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-021-02828-y

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