Center for Human Movement Sciences, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2013 Jul 30;8(7):e70799. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0070799. Print 2013.
There is ample evidence that physical and cognitive performance are related, but the results of studies investigating this relationship show great variability. Both physical performance and cognitive performance are constructs consisting of several subdomains, but it is presently unknown if the relationship between physical and cognitive performance depends on subdomain of either construct and whether gender and age moderate this relationship. The aim of this study is to identify the strongest physical predictors of cognitive performance, to determine the specificity of these predictors for various cognitive subdomains, and to examine gender and age as potential moderators of the relationship between physical and cognitive performance in a sample of community-dwelling older adults. In total, 98 men and 122 women (average age 74.0±5.6 years) were subjected to a series of performance-based physical fitness and neuropsychological tests. Muscle strength, balance, functional reach, and walking ability (combined score of walking speed and endurance) were considered to predict cognitive performance across several domains (i.e. memory, verbal attention, visual attention, set-shifting, visuo-motor attention, inhibition and intelligence). Results showed that muscle strength was a significant predictor of cognitive performance for men and women. Walking ability and balance were significant predictors of cognitive performance for men, whereas only walking ability was significant for women. We did not find a moderating effect of age, nor did we find support for a differential effect of the physical predictors across different cognitive subdomains. In summary, our results showed a significant relationship between cognitive and physical performance, with a moderating effect of gender.
有充分的证据表明，身体表现和认知表现是相关的，但研究这一关系的结果显示出很大的可变性。身体表现和认知表现都是由几个子领域组成的结构，但目前还不清楚身体表现和认知表现之间的关系是否取决于这两个结构的子领域，以及性别和年龄是否调节这种关系。本研究的目的是确定对认知表现影响最大的身体因素，确定这些预测因素对各种认知子领域的特异性，并研究性别和年龄是否对社区居住的老年人群体中身体表现和认知表现之间的关系具有潜在的调节作用。共有 98 名男性和 122 名女性（平均年龄 74.0±5.6 岁）接受了一系列基于表现的身体适应性和神经心理学测试。肌肉力量、平衡、功能伸展和步行能力（行走速度和耐力的综合得分）被认为可以预测几个认知领域的认知表现（即记忆、言语注意力、视觉注意力、定势转移、视动注意力、抑制和智力）。结果表明，肌肉力量是男性和女性认知表现的重要预测因素。步行能力和平衡是男性认知表现的重要预测因素，而只有步行能力对女性有显著影响。我们没有发现年龄的调节作用，也没有发现身体预测因素对不同认知子领域的影响存在差异。总之，我们的研究结果表明，认知表现和身体表现之间存在显著关系，性别具有调节作用。
