Mental exercise may help seniors think better, longer
Older adults who received cognitive training reported improved cognitive function for up to five years afterwards and less decline in the ability to perform daily activities as compared to those who did not receive the training, according to a newly published study.
Decline in cognitive abilities has been shown to lead to an increased risk of difficulty in performing important activities of daily living (IADL). However, whether interventions to maintain or enhance cognitive abilities in older adults will prevent or delay these functional difficulties has been unclear.
Sherry L. Willis, Ph.D., of Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pa., and colleagues conducted the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study between April 1998 and December 2004. Their findings are published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Participants in the study included 2,832 people (average age 73.6 years), living independently in six US cities, who were recruited from senior housing, community centers, and hospitals and clinics. The five-year follow-up was completed in 67% of the sample.
In the fifth year, participants in all three intervention groups reported less difficulty compared with the control group in performing IADL. However, this effect was significant only for the reasoning group. Neither speed of processing training nor memory training had a significant effect on IADL.
The ACTIVE study is the first large-scale, randomised trial to show that cognitive training improves cognitive function in well-functioning older adults and that this improvement lasts up to five years from the beginning of the intervention, the researchers wrote.
