Effect of aerobic exercise combined with meditation on cognitive frailty: study protocol for a parallel group randomised controlled trial.
BMJ open June 27, 2025 Sijia Xia, Feng Chen, Wenju Wang et al.
This registered clinical trial protocol describes a four-arm, assessor-blind randomized controlled trial that will test whether combining aerobic exercise with meditation produces greater improvements in physical and cognitive function for people with cognitive frailty than either practice alone. Cognitive frailty is the simultaneous presence of physical frailty and cognitive impairment without dementia. One hundred forty qualified participants will be randomly assigned to aerobic exercise, meditation, combined aerobic exercise and meditation, or a health education control group for 12 weeks. Primary outcome is the Edmonton Frailty Scale; secondary outcomes include cognitive tests, physical performance, subjective experiences, brain MRI measures, and blood biomarkers. Assessments occur at baseline and after the intervention.