Strength training and games such as gateball and park golf, which engage both muscles and cognitive function, may be more effective at preventing dementia in older adults than simply walking or doing calisthenics, a new study has found.
A joint research team from Nippon Sport Science University and the University of Tsukuba tracked older residents of a rural area for four years and found that people who did strength training or played gateball and park golf had a significantly lower risk of developing dementia than those who did not exercise, the medical community said on the 25th. Walking, calisthenics and golf showed no such difference.
The team studied residents aged 65 and over living in Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. Researchers first surveyed participants' lifestyle habits and health conditions in June 2013, then assessed what exercise they typically did in August 2017. They then tracked whether participants developed dementia for up to four years, through July 2021.
The analysis covered five types of exercise that each had more than 150 participants: calisthenics, walking, gateball and park golf, golf, and strength training. The team adjusted for factors that could affect dementia risk — including age, gender, education, economic status, sleep duration, memory decline, depression, body mass index (BMI) and chronic illness — to examine differences by type of exercise.
During the tracking period, 430 of the 5,074 participants (8.5%) developed dementia. Compared with those who did not exercise, people who did strength training had a 74% lower risk of developing dementia. Those who enjoyed gateball and park golf had a 32% lower risk.
By contrast, the groups that did calisthenics, walking and golf showed no statistically significant difference in dementia risk compared with the group that did not exercise.
The team suggested that strength training may improve blood flow to the brain and promote the secretion of substances that aid nerve growth, potentially having a positive effect on maintaining cognitive function.
The researchers also noted that gateball and park golf go beyond simple physical activity, requiring several cognitive processes at once, such as judging a target point and moving a club accordingly.
"Because games such as gateball and park golf require using a club to hit a target point accurately, they involve complex motor control," the team explained. "This is consistent with existing research showing that such exercise is more effective at improving cognitive function than endurance- or strength-focused exercise." The team added that these games are often played in groups, so the resulting increase in social activity may also have helped prevent dementia.
However, this study alone makes it difficult to conclude that any particular exercise directly prevents dementia. The researchers said the four-year tracking period was relatively short, so they could not entirely rule out the possibility that early symptoms of dementia caused participants to reduce their exercise first.
They also cited limitations, including that exercise type was surveyed at only one point in time and thus did not reflect later changes in participants' exercise habits, and that most participants were older adults in rural areas. Further research is therefore needed before these findings can be applied directly to all older adults.
The findings were published in the August issue of the international journal Geriatrics & Gerontology International.
