Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

Psychology

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Alexandra M. Gaynor

Committee Member

Bernadette Fausto

Committee Member

Erica Nahin

Abstract

Older African American (AA) adults face disproportionately higher risk of stress and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) compared to other racial and ethnic groups, yet they remain underrepresented in intervention-based research. Previous research has suggested aerobic exercise may reduce stress and benefit executive functioning, which is among the first cognitive domains to be affected in ADRD; however, no studies to date have directly tested the impact of aerobic vs. non-aerobic exercise in older AAs at high risk for developing ADRD. The current study evaluated the effects of a group-based cardio dance fitness (CDF) exercise intervention versus a strength, flexibility, and balance (SFB) intervention on executive function and perceived stress. N= 37 sedentary older AAs with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a significant risk factor for later development of ADRD, were randomized to a six-month intervention of CDF or SFB. We hypothesized that CDF participants would show greater improvements in executive function and perceived stress compared to SFB participants. Mixed model repeated measures ANOVAs evaluated changes in both groups from baseline to post-intervention on executive function measures (Digit Span Total, Trails Making Test B [TMT-B], Controlled Oral Word Association Test [COWAT] Letters and Semantics) and perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale). No statistically significant interactions between exercise group and time emerged; however, significant main effects of time were found for Digit Span Total, TMT-B, and COWAT (Semantics), suggesting possible cognitive improvements across both exercise interventions. Statistically significant main effects of exercise group were also found for COWAT (Letters & Semantics), suggesting participants in Group 1 outperformed those in Group 0 on verbal fluency across both timepoints. There were no statistically significant main effects or interactions between effects of group and time on perceived stress. Our findings indicate that participating in structured, consistent group-based exercise may yield meaningful cognitive benefits over time. Our findings should be interpreted with caution due to sample size limitations and assumption violations. Future research should incorporate larger samples and explore moderators (e.g. body mass index) to determine how they contribute to cognitive changes in populations at high risk for developing ADRD.

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