An Acute Bout of Dynamic Sitting Exercises Improves Stroop Performance and Quality of Sleep in Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment

Aims: The study was aimed at identifying the acute effects of dynamic sitting exercises (DSE) on Stroop performance and quality of sleep inelderly persons with cognitive impairment. Materials and Methods: Sixty‑eight elderly males with cognitive impairment were attended inresearch voluntarily, following screening tests, 62 participants were assigned randomly assigned to either DSE or control groups. At the end,5 participants discontinued from the study. The experimental group participated in eight sessions of DSE in 2 weeks (four sessions a week).The exercise protocol consisted of stepping patterns on a chair; stretching and finger movements. The Stroop test was used to evaluate thecognitive performance of participants before and after exercise intervention. Actiwatch 7 was used to measure sleep quality. Paired t‑test andindependent t‑test were used to analyze the data. Results: It was suggested that Stroop performance was positively affected by DSE (P ≤ 0.05);meanwhile, no statistically significant change was found in the control group (P ≥ 0.05). All parameters of sleep patterns, including sleepefficiency, wake after sleep onset, and movement and fragmentation index, were improved significantly (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: Although theaging process besides the environmental factors, especially lifestyle could result in cognitive impairment, DSE would improve the cognitiveperformance in Stroop performance test.

Keywords:

Cognitive , dynamic sitting exercises , exercise , stroop