Past physical exercise activity impacts on metabolic risk factors and continuous attention in midlife and elderly men

Little is known about the impact of previous physical activity on metabolic risks and continuous attention factors in the course of aging. Furthermore, there is a discrepancy in the existing evidences due to multi componential nature of these factors. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine whether the previous physical activity history can synchronously modify the changes in overall performance in sustained attention and total metabolic risk in midlife and elderly men. Moreover, the modulating effects of other individual variables on the impact of physical activity history on aforementioned factors were investigated. 27 male subjects in midlife group including; 13 active and 14 sedentary and 28 male subjects in elderly group including; 15 active and 13 sedentary underwent Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and measurements of waist circumference and blood pressure prior to fasting blood sampling. In order to provide a quantitative index for performance in both continuous attention and total metabolic risk groups, we calculated the overall CPT Z score (Zcpt) using individual subject data at three components of CPT (Target Acc Rate, Foil Acc Rate and Mean Reaction Time) and the total metabolic risk Z score (Zmets) of five components of metabolic risk factors, including; waist circumference, arterial blood pressure and blood glucose, triglyceride and high density lipoprotein levels. There was significant correlation between the age and number of metabolic risk indices with continuous attention components (P<0.05), regarding three components of CPT for all the subjects. Educational level was determined as the most dominant predictor of Zcpt (P<0.05). All three components of CPT showed significant differences between two age groups and also between two life styles (P<0.05). Significant difference was observed between two life styles for Zcpt and two age groups for Zmets (P<0.05). Sedentary life style in aging men increases the metabolic risks along with reduction of sustained attention. Physical fitness and cognitive challenge are important factors in improving vigilance and/or reducing hazards of confusion in aged male individuals