Abstract
The present study investigated the influence of cognitive, motor, and Karate (accordingly the guidelines of the German-Karate-Federation, DKV) training on the cognitive functioning and mental state of older people between 67 and 93 years of age. The three training groups each consisted of 12 elderly participants; the waiting control group included 9 participants. Before the training, participants were evaluated with cognitive measurements (cognitive speed: number-connection test, number–symbol test; memory performance: digit-span test, blocking-tapping test, figure test) and a measurement of emotional well-being. After this pre-testing they participated the specific training in on average sixteen 1-h training sessions. The cognitive training exercised inductive thinking ability, the motor training worked on easy stretching and mobilization techniques, and the Karate training taught tasks of self-defense, partner training, and Katas. After completion of the training sessions, all tests were applied again. The results show no significant difference in cognitive improvement dependent on group between the three training conditions. However a significant improvement was found in the emotional mental state measurement for the Karate group compared to the waiting control group. This result suggests that the integrated involvement in Karate leads to a feeling of self-worth and that, even in elderly people, integration of new sports helps to improve quality of life.
Highlights
Increasing life expectancy and demographic changes are causing the absolute number of elderly people to increase as well as their proportion of the total population
Bonferroni corrections shows that participants of the cognitive training group (M = 17.75; SE = 0.85) had more training sessions than the participants of the physical exercise group (M = 14.67, SE = 0.81)
Number-connection test The control group (M = 45.51 s; SE = 3.8) needed more time to solve the test compared to the physical exercise group (M = 29.72 s; SE = 3.45), the cognitive training group (M = 23.83 s; SE = 3.28), and the Karate group (M = 29.31 s; SE = 3.41)
Summary
Increasing life expectancy and demographic changes are causing the absolute number of elderly people to increase as well as their proportion of the total population. It is well known that some cognitive functions decline in older age, mainly fluid intelligence components such as perceptual speed and working memory capacity; other cognitive functions stay stable over a long period in life, such as verbal fluency and knowledge representations (Smith and Baltes, 2010). Much research has been done to investigate how cognitive functions remain stable over long periods of time. Larson et al (2006) conducted an investigation with 1,750 older adults, performing tests every 2 years over a period of 6 years. They showed that people who are physically active at least three times a week had a minor probability for suffering from dementia. If other factors were included in the analysis, for example smoking and education level, this advantage was reduced
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