MOOD, PHYSICAL WORKING CAPACITY AND COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN THE ELDERLY AS RELATED TO PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY

The age-related decline in physical working capacity, cognitive perfor mance. and psychological well-being can presumably be modified by regu lar physical exercise. The present study comprises 20 men and 20 women with a mean age of 66 years. Half of the participants were randomly a ssigned to an exercise group, the remaining half to a control group. T he members of the exercise group exercised individually through regula r walking (three times a week) during a period of three months. The co ntrol group performed instead a series of mental tasks with the same r egularity. Results showed significant differences in favor of the exer cise group on complex tasks at the post-test, whereas only minor diffe rences were found on simple tasks. Mood improvements were uniform, reg ardless of exercise involvement. The latter can be taken to indicate t hat exercise is not the most important factor, instead social context and regular contacts with other people may be equally important for el derly individuals. (C) 1997 Editrice Kurtis.