Dementia-Inclusive Choices for Exercise

Research shows that people living with dementia can experience improvements in cognition, physical fitness, and functional independence with exercise. However, they also experience many barriers to exercise. For example, changes in memory, balance, coordination, and motivation are common and can impede exercise participation. Other societal challenges include the continued stigma of dementia, which means that exercise programs are often not designed to meet the needs of people living with dementia.

The overarching goal of the Dementia-Inclusive Choices for Exercise (DICE) program is to increase the number and quality of exercise opportunities available to people living with dementia. We focus on increasing the accessibility of community exercise programs. Increased participation in community exercise could improve the mental, physical, and social well-being of people living with dementia, and also reduce feelings of stigma and improve feelings of inclusion in their community.

The DICE project is a participatory project and the research team includes people living with dementia, a family care partner, exercise providers, dementia service providers, health care professionals and researchers. The DICE project was conducted over several phases. First, the researchers conducted interviews and focus groups with people living with dementia, care partners, exercise providers and healthcare professionals to understand the barriers to exercise among people living with dementia and what supports might be needed. Next, the team prioritized actions, focusing on enabling participation by training exercise providers to understand and meet the needs of people living with dementia. Training and resources developed focused on: (1) understanding the diversity of dementia, (2) recognizing the rights of people living with dementia for inclusion, (2) physical activity guidelines and benefits, and (4) dementia-inclusive exercise practices.

The content and format of training and resources were developed over a one-day workshop at the RIA and many research team meetings. We produced a DICE website, four training modules and an accompanying training manual for exercise providers, destigmatizing videos, and handouts for persons living with dementia and care partners. We tested the usability of resources and made changes prior to the pilot study.