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Updated: Sep 23, 2026

Orienteering as a Tool for Cognitive Research: An Implementation Guide
Published on: November 29, 2024
Exercise-only interventions and exercise-based multidomain lifestyle interventions to promote cognitive function in
Rebeca Hernández-Gamboa1,2, Jammy Zou1,2, Jean Oh3
1Physical Therapy, The University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Objective:
To assess the effect of exercise training as a single intervention (ie, Exercise-Only) and exercise combined with other lifestyle interventions (ie, Exercise-Plus) on executive functions, memory and processing speed of older adults living without dementia.
Design:
We performed a systematic review with pairwise meta-analyses and network meta-analysis to examine the effects of: (1) Exercise-Only versus Control; (2) Exercise-Plus versus Control; and (3) Exercise-Plus versus Exercise-Only.
Data Sources:
We searched four databases (Medline, Embase, PsycINFO and CINAHL) between database inception and March 2026.
Eligibility Criteria:
We included randomised controlled trials that examined the effects of exercise training as a single domain or multidomain intervention on cognitive function of adults aged over 60 living without dementia.
Results:
We included 227 studies in the pairwise meta-analyses (Exercise-Only=178, Exercise-Plus=67) and 105 studies in the subset for the network meta-analysis (Exercise-Only=76, Exercise-Plus=36). Cognitive training and cognitively engaging activities were the most common Plus component in the included studies. Exercise-Only produced statistically significant improvements across all three cognitive domains compared with Control. Exercise-Plus was only significantly better than Control for memory. Exercise-Plus was also significantly better than Exercise-Only for executive functions and processing speed but not for memory.
Conclusion:
We recommend the promotion of exercise training to improve cognitive outcomes of older adults. Further research is needed to determine the added benefit of multidomain exercise interventions.
Prospero Registration Number:
CRD42022322199.
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