Activa-MenteEfectos de un programa multicomponente de ejercicio físico en mayores a nivel físico, cognitivo y emocional

Abstract

NTRODUCTION The number of over 60 years old population is increasing during recent years, what produces that the effects of becoming older are more common in our society. At this moment, there is a wide range of activities organised by different organisations for older adults which goal is to minimize the decline that an older person suffers daily. One of these proposals is physical exercise programmes.Doing physical exercise regularly has been proved as an useful option in order to reduce the decline which is associated with becoming older. It contributes to improve some physical aspects related to autonomy and quality of life of older people. Physical exercise is also associated with improvements on cognition and/or emotions, becoming this practice in something beneficial for people’shealth.Not only does the physical exercise programmes organization improve physical, cognitive and/or emotional levels of older adults but also it makes them reach a better quality of life. These benefits reduce decline in older people. OBJECTIVE The goal of the present research is to design a multicomponent physical exercise program based on the Multiple Intelligences Theory and the Inteligencia XXI guide. This program is aimed to older adults, where physical, cognitive and/or emotional aspects were measured previously and after the intervention. MATERIAL AND METHODS Three different studies have been stablished according to the sample of participants’ characteristics. All the studies have a longitudinal pre-post methodology for assessing possible effects produced by the intervention program. Different outcomes were measured on both previous and final assessments. The assessment protocol included corporal composition outcomes (stadiometer and Tanita), physical and health-related quality of life outcomes (Senior Fitness Test, dynamometer, Lawton & Brody scale, 12 ítem short form –SF-12-), cognitive outcomes(Stroop,7minutes,Digits)and psychoemotional outcomes(scale for theassessment of mood state, Rosenberg test, Revised Life Orientation Test, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). RESULTS In spite of some differences in all studies’ results, we found common and great benefits on older adults after the intervention such as improvements on fat percentage, visceral fat and muscle mass. Cardiorespiratory fitness was also improved onparticipants.Broadly, cognitive outcomes did not suffer any difference. Some of them, like response speed, improved significantly after the intervention. On the other hand, a decline was found on attentional process, measured through DigitsTest.Psychoemotional outcomes have kept their global scores or even improved them such as self-steem, which got significant better scores once the program was done. CONCLUSION The multicomponent physical exercise program that was designed and developed by older adults shows, broadly, a maintenance and/or an improvement on different physical, cognitive and psychoemotional outcomes. These benefits contributed to the fact of them achieving a greater quality of life.