The impact of physical activity on the cognitive fitness of the elderly – a review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15584/ejcem.2022.4.13Keywords:
cognitive functions, physical activity, old ageAbstract
Introduction and aim. The issues of humans’ ageing are more and more frequently addressed in the relevant literature. Most commonly, people follow three ageing trajectories: a normal one, disease-affected one, and a healthy one. The purpose of this article is to present a relationship between physical activity and occurrence of cognitive function impairment in the elderly.
Material and methods. This paper is a narrative review. Based on a literature search, various forms of physical activity are presented, as well as the effects of physical activity on mitigation of cognitive disorders in the elderly. The following databases were used: Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar.
Analysis of the literature. One of the most important factors that promote healthy ageing is regular physical activity. Many studies and publications have addressed this issue. The relationships between physical activity and cognitive fitness have been less studied.
Conclusion. The results of the studies presented in this article may form the basis for more in-depth analyses and, in a longterm perspective, for the development of optimal preventive and therapeutic strategies using broadly understood physical activity to maintain cognitive fitness of the elderly.
Downloads
References
Harada CN, Love MC, Triebel KL. Normal cognitive aging. Clin Geriatr Med. 2013;29(4):737-752. doi: 10.1016/j.cger.2013.07.002
Langa KM, Levine DA. The diagnosis and management of mild cognitive impairment: a clinical review. JAMA. 2014;312(23):2551-2561. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.13806
Winblad B, Palmer K, Kivipelto M, et al. Mild cognitive impairment – beyond controversies, towards a consensus: report of the International Working Group on Mild Cognitive Impairment. J Intern Med. 2004;256(3):240-246. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2796.2004.01380.x
Petersen RC. Mild cognitive impairment as a diagnostic entity. J Intern Med. 2004;256:183-194. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2796.2004.01388.x
Petersen RC, Negash S. Mild cognitive impairment: an overview. CNS Spectr. 2008;13:45-53. doi: 10.1017/s1092852900016151
Petersen RC, Lopez O, Armstrong MJ, et al. Practice guideline update summary: mild cognitive impairment: report of the Guideline Development, Dissemination, and Implementation Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology. Neurol. 2018;90:126-135. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000004826
Solé-Padullés C, Bartrés-Faz D, Junqué C, et al. Brain structure and function related to cognitive reserve variables in normal aging, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiol Aging. 2009;30(7):1114-1124. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2007.10.008
Disu TR, Anne NJ, Griffiths MD, Mamun MA. Risk factors of geriatric depression among elderly Bangladeshi people: A pilot interview study. Asian J Psychiatr. 2019;1(44):163-169. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2019.07.050
Puszczałowska-Lizis E, Lech S, Sikorski T, Żak M. Quality of life and risk of depression in the youngest-old and middle-old women and men. Med Og Nauk Zdr. 2021;27(3):291-296.
World Health Organization. Mental Health of Older Adults. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-of-older-adults. Accessed May 2, 2022.
Wang KC, Yip PK, Lu YY, Yeh ZT. Depression in older adults among community: the role of executive function. Int J Gerontol. 2017;11(4):230-234.
Gao Y, Huang C, Zhao K, et al. Depression as a risk factor for dementia and mild cognitive impairment: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2013;28(5):441-449. doi: 10.1002/gps.3845
Rock PL, Roiser JP, Riedel WJ, Blackwell AD. Cognitive impairment in depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychol Med. 2014; 44(10):2029-2040. doi: 10.1017/S0033291713002535
Petersen RC. Mild cognitive impairment. Continuum. Minneap Minn. 2016;22(2):404–418.
Doody RS, Ferris SH, Salloway S, et al. Donepezil treatment of patients with MCI: a 48–week randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Neurol. 2009;72:1555-1561. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181bd6c25
Roberts R, Knopman DS. Classification and epidemiology of MCI. Clin Geriatr Med. 2013;29(4): 753-772. doi: 10.1016/j.cger.2013.07.003
World Health Organization. Promoting mental health: concepts, emerging evidence, practice (Summary Report). https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/42940/9241591595.pdf. Accessed May 10, 2022.
Galderisi S, Heinz A, Kastrup M, Beezhold J, Sartorius N. Toward a new definition of mental health. World Psychiatr. 2015;14:231-233. doi: 10.1002/wps.20231
Osiński W. About the needs for theoretical thinking and target diversity in the testing of physical fitness. In: Contemporary methods of human activity, performance and physical fitness testing. Buśko K, Charzewska J, Kaczanowski K. eds. Warsaw, Poland: AWF; 2010:16-17.
World Health Organization Global strategy on nutrition, physical activity and health. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/43035. Accessed May 10, 2022.
Kasperczyk T. Physical activity of the elderly as a condition for health and high quality of life. J Clin Healthcare. 2014;1:8-15.
Anderson E, Shivakumar G. Effects of exercise and physical activity on anxiety. Front Psychiatry. 2013;4:27. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00027
Park H, Poo MM. Neurotrophin regulation of neural circuit development and function. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2013;14:7-23. doi: 10.1038/nrn3379
Liu PZ, Nusslock R. Exercise-mediated neurogenesis in the hippocampus via BDNF. Front Neurosci. 2018;12:52. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00052
Angelica MS, Silva TMV, Coelho FGM, et al. Physical exercise, IGF-1 and cognition A systematic review of experimental studies in the elderly. Dement Neuropsychol. 2018;12(2):114-122. doi: 10.1590/1980-57642018dn12-020003
Liu Y, Yu S, Yau Y, Wang Y, Xu A. FGF-21 as a potential mediator for the antidepressant effects of physical exercise. Diabetes. 2018;67(1):132-143.
Smith KJ, Ainslie PN. Regulation of cerebral blood flow and metabolism during exercise. Exp Physiol. 2017;102(11):1356-1371. doi: 10.1113/EP086249
Bullitt E, Rahman FN, Smith JK, et al. The effect of exercise on the cerebral vasculature of healthy aged subjects sa visualized by MR angiography. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2009;30:1857-1863. doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1695
Gomez-Pinilla F, Hillman C. The influence of exercise on cognitive abilities. Compr Physiol. 2013;3(1):403-428. doi: 10.1002/cphy.c110063
Heyn P, Abreu BC, Ottenbacher KJ. The effects of exercise training on elderly persons with cognitive impairment and dementia: a meta-analysis. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2004;85(10):1694-1704. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2004.03.019
Kramer AF, Colcombe S. Fitness effects on the cognitive function of older adults: a meta-analytic study-revisited. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2018;13(2):213-217. doi: 10.1177/1745691617707316
Antunes HK, Santos-Galduroz RF, De Aquino Lemos V, et al. The influence of physical exercise and leisure activity on neuropsychological functioning in older adults. Age. 2015;37(4):9815. doi: 10.1007/s11357-015-9815-8
Baker LD, Frank LL, Foster-Schubert K, et al. Effects of aerobic exercise on mild cognitive impairment: a controlled trial. Arch Neurol. 2010;67(1):71-79. doi: 10.1001/archneurol.2009.307
Davis JC, Bryan S, Marra CA, et.al. An economic evaluation of resistance training and aerobic training versus balance and toning exercises in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. PLoS One. 2013;8:e63031. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063031
Liu-Ambrose T, Nagamatsu LS, Graf P, Beattie BL, Ashe MC, Handy TC. Resistance training and executive functions: a 12-month randomized controlled trial. Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(2):170-178. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2009.494
Colcombe SJ, Erickson KI, Scalf PE, et al. Aerobic exercise training increases brain volume in aging humans. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2006;61:1166-1170. doi: 10.1093/gerona/61.11.1166
Burdette JH, Laurienti PJ, Espeland MA. Using network science to evaluate exercise- associated brain changes in older adults. Front Aging Neurosci. 2010;2:23. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2010.00023
Rehfeld, K, Müller, P, Aye N, et al. Dancing or fitness sport? The effects of two training programs on hippo¬ campal plasticity and balance abilities in healthy seniors. Front Hum Neurosci. 2017;11: 305. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00305
Mueller K, Möller HE, Horstmann A, et al. Physical exercise in overweight to obese individuals induces metabolic and neurotrophic-related structural brain plasticity. Front Hum Neurosci. 2015; 9:372. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00372
Eyre HA, Siddarth P, Acevedo B, et al. A randomized controlled trial of Kundalini yoga in mild cognitive impairment. Int Psychogeriatr. 2017;29(4):557-567. doi: 10.1017/S1041610216002155
Tew GA, Howsam, J, Hardy M, Bissell L. Adapted yoga to improve physical function and health-related quality of life in physically-inactive older adults: a randomised controlled pilot trial. BMC Geriatr. 2017;17:131. doi: 10.1186/s12877-017-0520-6
Ploughman M. Exercise is brain food: the effects of physical activity on cognitive function. Dev Neurorehabil. 2008;11(3):236-240. doi: 10.1080/17518420801997007
Gallaway PJ, Miyake H, Buchowski MS, et al. Physical Activity: A Viable Way to Reduce the Risks of Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Vascular Dementia in Older Adults. Brain Sci. 2017;7(2):22. doi: 10.3390/brainsci7020022
Nuzum H, Stickel A, Corona M, Zeller M, Melrose RJ, Wilkins SS. Potential benefits of physical activity in mci and dementia. Behav Neurol. 2020;2020:7807856. doi: 10.1155/2020/7807856
Tokarz A, Stawarska A, Kolczewska M. Qualitative evaluation of the nutrition of the elderly associated in selected social societies in Warsaw. Bromat Chem Toksykol. 2007;11(4):359-364.
Grimm EK, Swartz A, Hart T, Miller NE. Comparison of the IPAQ-Short Form and accelerometry predictions of physical activity in older adults. J Aging Phys Act. 2012;20(1):64-79. doi: 10.1123/japa.20.1.64
Han SY, Ko Y. A structural equation model of successful aging in Korean older women: using selection-optimization-compensation (SOC) strategies. J Women Aging. 2021;33(1):84-99. doi: 10.1080/08952841.2019.1681883
Rizzuto D, Orsini N, Qiu C, Wang HX, Fratiglioni L. Lifestyle, social factors, and survival after age 75: population based study. BMJ. 2012;345:e5568. doi: 10.1136/bmj.e5568
Ham SA, Yore MM, Fulton JE, et al. Prevalence of no leisure-time physical activity – 35 states and District of Columbia. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2004;53(4):82-86.
Katzmarzyk P. Physical activity and fitness with age among sex and ethnic groups. In: Physical activity and health. Bouchard C, Blair SN, Haskell W, eds. Champaign: Human Kinetics; 2007:35.
Zhang L, Gallagher R, Neubeck L. Health-related quality of life in atrial fibrillation patients over 65 years: a review. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2015;22(8):987-1002. doi: 10.1177/2047487314538855
Rembowski J. Psychological problems of human ageing. Warsaw, Poland: PWN; 1984: 33-34.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 European Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Our open access policy is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) definition: this means that articles have free availability on the public Internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from having access to the Internet itself.
All articles are published with free open access under the CC-BY Creative Commons attribution license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0). If you submit your paper for publication by the Eur J Clin Exp Med, you agree to have the CC-BY license applied to your work. Under this Open Access license, you, as the author, agree that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. This facilitates freedom in re-use and also ensures that Eur J Clin Exp Med content can be mined without barriers for the research needs.
