ADAPTING ENHANCE®FITNESS FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH DEMENTIA AND THEIR CARE PARTNERS THROUGH A RE-AIM LENS - Vol 9 - Abstract

Sep 28, 2026

Upload by Rizky

Multidomain lifestyle trials show that coordinated behavior change can support cognitive health. Prior studies such as FINGER and early evidence from POINTER suggest stronger cognitive benefits than general health advice among older adults at elevated dementia risk. However, community exercise programs are rarely adapted or rigorously tested with people living with dementia (PLWD) and care partners. This presentation examines how to tailor Enhance®Fitness (EF)—an evidence-based, low-cost group exercise and falls prevention program—to improve relevance for PLWD. Using the RE-AIM framework, it outlines facilitators and barriers and proposes embedding EF in dementia-prevention trials to evaluate outcomes meaningful to PLWD and families.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract citation ID igaf122.4058

Rationale and prior evidence for multidomain approaches

Gap in community exercise programs for PLWD and care partners

Enhance®Fitness (EF) program and delivery feasibility

Tailoring EF with the RE-AIM evaluation framework

Implications for dementia-prevention trials and outcomes

Innovation in Aging, 2025, Vol. 9, No. S2 1213 Abstract citation ID: igaf122.4058 ADAPTING ENHANCE®FITNESS FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH DEMENTIA AND THEIR CARE PARTNERS THROUGH A RE-AIM LENS Sarah McKiddy, Wenting Peng, and Basia Belza, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States Multidomain lifestyle trials demonstrate that combined behavior change can support cognitive health. The FINGER demonstrated that a two-year multidomain lifestyle intervention helped maintain or improve cognition compared to general health advice in older adults who had elevated dementia risk factors. Preliminary findings from the U.S. POINTER trial similarly suggests that a multidomain approach led to greater cognitive benefits than self-guided health promotion among adults at elevated dementia risk. Despite these promising studies, widely disseminated community-based exercise programs have rarely been adapted for, or rigorously tested with, people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners. Enhance®Fitness (EF) – a long-standing, evidence-based, low-cost group exercise and falls prevention program with broad adoption across community and health system settings in the U.S.– improves physical performance and demonstrates strong participant retention. Remotely delivered EF has proven feasible for older adults with arthritis, and a pragmatic trial is comparing in-person and tele-EF. Yet many EF studies have excluded participants with cognitive impairment and no EF study examined the effectiveness of improving cognitive function, limiting relevance to PLWD. This presentation explores considerations for tailoring EF to support PLWD and their care partners. Embedding EF in dementia prevention trials would allow evaluation of outcomes meaningful to PLWD and families, including social engagement and caregiver support. The RE-AIM framework guides our evaluation to identify facilitators and barriers specific to PLWD and families. EF’s national infrastructure and interdisciplinary research base offers a robust pathway to extend dementia-friendly lifestyle interventions to community-based health promotion programs.

FAQs

Why is multidomain lifestyle intervention relevant to dementia risk and cognition?

Research such as the FINGER study and early U.S. POINTER findings indicates that multidomain lifestyle approaches can help maintain or improve cognition compared with general health advice among adults at elevated dementia risk.

What limitation exists in widely used community-based exercise programs for PLWD?

Such programs have rarely been adapted for, or rigorously tested with, people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners. Many EF studies also excluded participants with cognitive impairment and did not assess cognitive function outcomes for PLWD.

How does the RE-AIM framework guide the proposed EF evaluation?

The RE-AIM framework is used to identify facilitators and barriers that are specific to PLWD and families, supporting assessment of outcomes meaningful to PLWD such as social engagement and caregiver support when EF is embedded in dementia prevention trials.

Sep 28, 2026

Upload by Rizky