The Effect of Brain Gym Exercises on Sustain Attention in Male Older Adults

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 M.A. at Motor Behavior, Sport Sciences Faculty, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor at Motor Behavior, Sport Sciences Faculty, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.

Abstract

Understanding of the problems of aging is a challenge to any community. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a period of brain gym exercises on the sustain attention of male older adults. In present semi-experimental study with pre-post test with control group design. 30 male older adults available were selected among all-male elderly members of the Shush Sugar Retirement Center in the year 2018 and randomly divided into two equal groups of 15 experimental (mean age:76.85±4.41 yr) and control (mean age:77.8±3.24 yr). The whole of the participants performed Conners’ Continuous Performance Test to evaluate the sustain attention in pre-post tests. In the course of eight weeks, the experimental group and on the control group performed twice in the week and each session within 30 minutes. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of covariance. The results indicate that there is a significant difference between the IBM SPSS version 25 software (P≥0.05). There was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in all components of continuous attention (P<0.01). According to the mean values of the groups, the empirical group had better performance than the control group. Therefore, it suggests to educators and practitioners in the sports to apply this new method of practice to improve sustain attention to perform tasks and activities.

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