EXERCISE, AGING, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION

建议进行一项多学科调查，以检查所起的作用 有氧运动对提高心理社会和认知能力的作用 200名老年人(60-74岁)的功能。一项随机试验将 比较有氧运动干预和伸展运动的效果 调色剂对照组在监督下从事活动6个月 计划和六个月的跟踪调查。预计有氧运动 计划将大大增强干预后的身体素质 这些受试者的健康状况的变化将导致改善 认知功能(记忆和注意力)和增强的心理社会 功能(改善心理幸福感和自我效能)。鉴于它 相信这项工作中特别重要的机制- 认知关系为心血管适合度，假设 自我效能感在健身对心理幸福感的影响中起中介作用。 最后，心理或心理健康的真实表现包括 有足够的认知功能和积极的心理健康。会的 因此对本项目的进一步目的进行探索性的 关于认知和心理社会关系的分析 在计划结束时和后续行动中的回应。两种治疗方法 预计群体将表现出相对较低的功能水平 (身体、认知和心理社会)在基线和 有氧运动组的机能将显著提高 与拉伸/调理组相比，这项计划的进程。的确， 如果这两组人在认知和认知能力方面表现出类似的增长 心理社会功能，但有氧健身收益程度不同 (即，有氧运动的改善比有氧运动更显著 伸展运动/对照组)，这将是强有力的证据表明 健身对于心理健康的改善并不是必须的，a 这本身就有重大贡献。这项调查试图 克服许多方法和概念问题，这些问题使 这一领域的现有文献充其量也只能是模棱两可的。第一，建议的 项目在理论上是有根据的，而不是描述性的。第二， 久坐不动的老龄化目标人口代表了人口的一部分 他们从运动中获得的收益将比正常情况下的人群更多 学习。第三，练习项目间的多方法评估 行为和生理功能(运动记录、长期随访、 心肺功能、心率)和心理功能 (记忆力、注意力、功效、情感)将被使用，使我们能够 综合衡量感兴趣的变量并确定 对这些结构的处理效果，以及可能的相互关系 其中就有。最后，我们包括同等数量的男性和女性，一个 适当比例的少数群体代表一般人 该地区的老年人口，运动干预将是 与非有氧对照组相比。拟议中的调查 代表了一项理论上有根据的前瞻性干预研究 并将改善健康的综合方法作为其目标 以及美国老年人的福祉。

A multidisciplinary investigation is proposed to examine the role played by aerobic exercise in enhancing the psychosocial and cognitive functioning of 200 aging adults (60-74 years). A randomized trial will compare effects of an aerobic exercise intervention and a stretching and toning control group engaged in activity for six months in supervised programs with a six month follow-up. It is expected that aerobic exercise program will substantially enhance the physical fitness post-intervention of these subjects and that changes in fitness will result in improved cognitive function (memory and attention) and enhanced psychosocial function (improved psychological well-being and self-efficacy). Whereas it is believed that the particular mechanism of importance in the exercise- cognition relationship is cardiovascular fitness, it is hypothesized that self-efficacy mediates the impact of fitness on psychological well-being. Finally, a true representation of psychological or mental health comprises adequate cognitive function and positive psychological well-being. It will therefore be a further purpose of this project to conduct exploratory analyses examining the relationship between cognitive and psychosocial responses at the end of the program and at follow-up. Both treatment groups are expected to demonstrate relatively low levels of functioning (physical, cognitive, and psychosocial) at baseline and that levels of functioning in the aerobic exercise group will increase markedly over the course of the program as compared to the stretching/toning group. Indeed, if both groups were to demonstrate similar increases in cognitive and psychosocial functioning but differ in degree of aerobic fitness gains (i.e., aerobic will make more marked improvements than the stretching/control group), this would be strong evidence to suggest that fitness gains are not necessary for psychological health improvements, a significant contribution in itself. This investigation attempts to overcome many of the methodological and conceptual problems that make the extant literature in this area equivocal at best. First, the proposed project is theoretically grounded rather than descriptive. Second, the sedentary aging population targeted represents a segment of the population which stand to gain more from exercise than those populations normally studied. Third, multi-method assessment across projects of exercise behavior and physiological function (exercise logs, long-term follow-up, cardiorespiratory function, heart rate), and psychological functioning (memory, attention, efficacy, affect) will be employed, allowing us to comprehensively measure the variables of interest and to determine treatment effects on these constructs, as well as possible interrelations among them. Finally, we include equal numbers of males and females, an appropriate proportion of minorities to be representative of the general older population in the region, and the exercise intervention is to be compared to a non-aerobic control group. The proposed investigation represents a prospective intervention study that is theoretically grounded and has as its objective a comprehensive approach to improving the health and well-being of older Americans.