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进行体育锻炼的老年人群的认知发育水平差异。研究方法：本研究为横断面研究，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），所有受试者均在社区卫生服务中心登记备案。研究采用简易精神状态评估量表（Mini Exam of Mental Health, MEEM）评估认知健康状况，并通过记录表完成受试者样本特征的采集；随后采用计算机化认知评估成套测试（Cognitive Computerized Evaluation, CogState）对老年人群的认知发育水平进行测评。统计分析环节，采用曼-惠特尼U检验（U Mann Whitney test）对两组进行组间比较，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表达，检验水准设定为5%。研究结果：两组受试者的简易精神状态评估量表（MEEM）得分存在统计学显著性差异。在认知发育水平方面，经CogState测评的所有分析变量均显示两组存在显著差异：体育锻炼组（G1）在简单反应时、选择反应时及辅助注意力相关测试中表现更优；而非锻炼组（G2）则在短时记忆与工作记忆相关测试中表现更佳。研究结论：与未进行体育锻炼的老年人群相比，规律参与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相关认知任务中表现更优异。