Bugg Julie M, Shah Krupa, Villareal Dennis T, Head Denise
Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
Exp Aging Res. 2012;38(2):131-45. doi: 10.1080/0361073X.2012.659995.
BacKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Aerobic fitness is associated with preserved cognition and brain volume in older adulthood. The current study investigated whether the benefits of aerobic fitness extend to obese older adults, a segment of the population that is rapidly growing and who exhibit compromised cognition and brain structure relative to their nonobese counterparts.
Measures of obesity, aerobic fitness, cognition (processing speed, executive function, spatial ability, memory), and regional brain volumes (prefrontal gray, prefrontal white, hippocampus) were obtained from 19 obese older adults aged 65 to 75. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the proportion of unique variance in cognitive and volumetric measures accounted for by aerobic fitness after controlling for covariates (age, gender, and waist circumference).
Aerobic fitness accounted for a significant amount of unique variance in processing speed (adjusted R (2) = .44), executive function (adjusted R (2) = .34), and hippocampal volume (adjusted R (2) = .27).
This novel pattern of results suggests that obesity does not preclude the benefits of fitness for cognition and brain volume in older adults. Fitness appears to be a beneficial factor for maintenance of processing speed, executive function, and hippocampal volume, which are vulnerable to age- and/or obesity-related decline.
背景/研究背景：有氧适能与老年人认知能力和脑容量的保持有关。本研究调查了有氧适能的益处是否能延伸至肥胖老年人，这一人群数量正在迅速增长，且与非肥胖同龄人相比，其认知和脑结构存在缺陷。
从19名年龄在65至75岁的肥胖老年人中获取肥胖、有氧适能、认知（处理速度、执行功能、空间能力、记忆）和脑区体积（前额叶灰质、前额叶白质、海马体）的测量数据。进行分层线性回归分析，以检验在控制协变量（年龄、性别和腰围）后，有氧适能在认知和体积测量中所占的独特方差比例。
有氧适能在处理速度（调整后R² = 0.44）、执行功能（调整后R² = 0.34）和海马体体积（调整后R² = 0.27）方面占显著比例的独特方差。
这种新的结果模式表明，肥胖并不排除适能对老年人认知和脑容量的益处。适能似乎是维持处理速度、执行功能和海马体体积的有益因素，这些方面容易受到年龄和/或肥胖相关衰退的影响。
