The effect of yoga on cognitive function of middle aged women with mild cognitive impairment

A mild cognitive impairment is thought to be a condition of premature but abnormal cognitive impairment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of yoga exercise on the cognitive function of Middle - aged women with mild cognitive impairment.

The present study was semi-experimental using a pre-test post-test design with two experimental and control groups. The participants were 41 middle-aged women who were divided into experimental and control groups according to the score of Montreal's cognitive assessment. The experimental group performed yoga exercise for 10 weeks (three sessions per week), each training session was 60 minutes. The pre-post test data obtained through the Montreal cognitive assessment were analyzed using covariance analysis test.

The findings showed that the experimental group had a significant increase in executive function, concentration, work memory and total cognitive function from pre-test to post-test (P≤0.05).

The results of this study indicated that middle-age women with mild cognitive impairment can improve cognitive performance by participating in yoga exercise.