Abstract

COELHO, Flávia Gomes de Melo et al. Cognitive performance in different levels of education of adults and active elderly. Rev. bras. geriatr. gerontol. [online]. 2012, vol.15, n.1, pp. 7-15. ISSN 1809-9823.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1809-98232012000100002.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the cognitive performance at different education levels of adults and elderly physically active. METHODS: The study enrolled 122 individuals without cognitive decline, aged between 46 to 85 years old, 1 to 15 years of schooling. All participants have practiced physical activity for more than 6 months in the Program of Physical and Recreational Activities for the Elderly. A battery of cognitive tests was administered to assess the following variables: short-term memory, language, learning, rate of forgetting, and executive functions. RESULTS: The Kruskal-Wallis test showed differences between groups with different levels of schooling, only to the short-term memory, and the Mann Whitney U test shows the difference between the group with less education (1-4 years) with the higher education group (> 12 years). CONCLUSION: Therefore, it is suggested that adults and active elderly, in different levels of schooling, present similar cognitive profile in the following cognitive domains: language, learning, rate of forgetting and executive functions.

Keywords : Cognition; Motor activity, Health of the elderly, Employee Performance Appraisal; Physical activity, Education level.