Effects of an Exercise Program on Frontal Lobe Cognitive Function in Elders

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of an exercise program on frontal lobe cognitive function in seniors. METHODS: The participants were 42 seniors using a health center in Seoul (experimental group) and 28 seniors using a facility for elders in Seoul (control group). The exercise program was carried out for 16 weeks from April to August 2007. The frontal lobe cognitive function, which includes short term memory, attention, immediate memory, delayed memory, verbal fluency and motor function, was measured by the Digit Span Forward test, Trail Making test, Immediate recall words test, Delayed recall words, Controlled oral word association test and Finger tapping test. The collected data were analyzed by Fisher's exact test, Chi-square, t-test, and ANCOVA using the SAS program. RESULTS: The major findings of this study were as follows Attention (p=.009), immediate memory (p=.005), delayed memory (p=.009), and verbal fluency (p=.004) improved after the exercise program. CONCLUSION: In this study, the exercise program was effective in improving frontal lobe cognitive function in elders. So it provides basic information for further nursing education on exercise programs which will be effective for prevention of early cognitive function decline in normally aging elders.