A comparison of continuous attention in active and sedentary elderlies

The aim of this study was to compare continuous attention of active and sedentary elderlies. In this sectional study 44 elderlies, included 24 active and 20 sedentary, with an age range of 62/4±5/04 years, were selected with convenience sampling method and assessed through Conners' Continuous Performance Test II. The Independent T Test was used for comparing Continuous Performance Test examined variables (includes Target Acc Rate, Foil Acc Rate, Commission Error, Omission Error and Correct RT Mean) between two groups. The correlation between Continuous Performance Test examined variables and age, body mass index and education was assessed through Pearson Correlation. The Independent T Test results indicated there was a significant difference in Continuous Performance Test examined variables between two groups and sedentary elderlies had better performance. According to correlation results there was a significant positive correlation between body mass index and age with Commission Error, Omission Error and Correct RT Mean, and a significant negative correlation between body mass index and age with Target Acc Rate and Foil Acc Rate. There was no significant correlation between education and Continuous Performance test variables. Based on these findings it seems that the progression rate of continuous attention decrement that occurs due to aging can be reduced by following a regular physical activity program.