Differences in cognitive aspects between seniors physical exercises practicing and non practising

Objective To compare de cognitive development of the seniors that practice and the one that doesn’t practice physical exercises. Methods This transversal study was made with 104 senior citizens, 64 belonging to the physical exercises Practicing Group (G1) and 40 belonging to the Non Practicing Group (G2), registered on Health Centers. It was a applied a Mini Exam of Mental Health (MEEM) to assess the cognitive health and a record for the characterize the sample. Afterwards, it was applied a Battery of Cognitive Computerized Evaluation (CogState) to assess the cognitive development of the senior citizens. There was utilized the U Mann Whitney test to compare the groups and the computation of the measure of effect d of Cohen, to verify if the practice of physical exercise influence on the cognitive development. To the descriptive assessment there was utilized data expressed in average, standard deviation, median and percentage. There was accepted the level of significance of 5%. Results The score on the MEEM have presented statistically significant differences between the groups. About the cognitive development, mensured by CogState, the groups diverged significantly to all the analyzed variables, presenting the G1 the best performance on the time tests of time and simple reaction, of choice and assisted attention; on the other hand, the G2 had better performance on the tests of short time memory and work. Conclusions Senior citizens practicing physical exercises have better performance for simple reaction time, choice reaction time and assisted care, when compared to older non-practicing.

研究目的：对比规律参与体育锻炼与未参与体育锻炼的老年人群的认知发育水平。
研究方法：本横断面研究（transversal study）共纳入104名老年受试者，其中64名隶属于体育锻炼组（G1），40名隶属于非锻炼组（G2），所有受试者均登记于卫生服务中心。研究人员采用简易心理健康测试（Mini Exam of Mental Health, MEEM）评估受试者的认知健康水平，并通过信息采集完成样本特征描述；随后采用计算机化认知评估成套测试（Battery of Cognitive Computerized Evaluation, CogState）对老年受试者的认知发育水平进行评估。统计分析环节，采用曼-惠特尼U检验完成组间比较，并计算科恩d效应量（Cohen's d），以验证体育锻炼是否对老年群体的认知发育存在影响。描述性分析采用均值、标准差、中位数及百分比进行数据呈现，本研究设定显著性水平为5%。
研究结果：两组受试者的简易心理健康测试（MEEM）得分存在统计学显著性差异。在CogState评估的认知发育相关指标中，两组受试者在所有分析变量上均存在显著组间差异：体育锻炼组（G1）在简单反应时、选择反应时及辅助注意力测试中表现更优；而非锻炼组（G2）则在短时记忆与工作记忆测试中表现更佳。
研究结论：与未参与体育锻炼的老年群体相比，规律进行体育锻炼的老年人在简单反应时、选择反应时及辅助注意力测试中表现更优。