BACKGROUND: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can be a stage of pre-dementia. Although the traditional Chinese exercise (TCE) has benefits associated with cognitive functions, the effects of the TCE on cognitive functions of older patients with MCI remain controversial. This study performs a meta-analysis to quantify the efficiency of TCE for older individuals on cognitive and psychological outcomes. METHODS: A comprehensive database search was conducted on PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), CINAHL (EBSCO), Web of Science, and four Chinese medical databases. We included trials published up to April 22, 2018, that fulfilled our inclusion and exclusion criteria. The literature was screened, the data were extracted and the methodological quality of the included trials was assessed. Meta-analyses were performed on the included data. RESULTS: A total of 803 patients from 5 trials were included in our meta-analysis. Overall, there were no significant differences in global cognitive functions (p = 0.06), memory (p = 0.11), executive function (p = 0.74), Verbal fluency (p = 0.45) and depression (p = 0.89) between the TCE and the control groups. However, the TCE significantly improved the visuospatial function (SMD 0.38, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.54; p < 0.001) for individuals with MCI. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggested that the TCE was associated with significant improvement in visuospatial function but did not affect the global cognitive functions, depression and other specific cognitive domains. There is a lack of clear evidence for effects of TCE; further large, rigorously designed studies are needed.

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