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. 2023 May:142:109170.
doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2023.109170. Epub 2023 Mar 20.

The relationship between physical activity and cognitive function in people with epilepsy: A systematic review

Halley B Alexander  1 , Jane B Allendorfer  2
Affiliations

The relationship between physical activity and cognitive function in people with epilepsy: A systematic review

Halley B Alexander et al. Epilepsy Behav. 2023 May.

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to systematically review the published literature evaluating the association between physical activity and cognitive function in people with epilepsy (PWE).

Methods: A comprehensive search of PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, and PsychInfo was performed on June 20, 2022. Studies were excluded if they were not available in the English language, contained animal data only, did not include any original data, were not peer-reviewed, or did not include PWE as a discrete group. PRISMA guidelines were followed. The GRADE scale was used to assess the risk of bias.

Results: Six studies were identified with a total of 123 participants. These included one observational study and five interventional studies, only one of which was a randomized controlled trial. In all studies, there was a positive association between physical activity and cognitive function in PWE. Both interventional studies showed improvement in at least one domain of cognitive functioning, though there was heterogeneity in the outcome measures used.

Conclusions: There is a potential positive association between physical activity and cognitive function in PWE, but available data is limited by heterogeneity, small sample size, and an overall lack of published studies in this area of research. There is a need for more robust studies to be performed in larger samples of PWE.

Keywords: Cognition; Epilepsy; Exercise; Physical activity; Seizures.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Halley B. Alexander receives compensation from the American Academy of Neurology for her position as Deputy Editor of the Neurology Minute podcast and is funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Grant #KL2TR001421. Jane B. Allendorfer is funded by NIH (R01HD102723; PI), the U.S. Department of Defense (W81XWH-17-1-0619), the state of Alabama “Carly’s Law”, the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, and has served as a consultant for LivaNova Inc.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Search process for studies of physical activity and cognition in people with epilepsy
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

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