The Effectiveness of Selected Perceptual-Motor Exercises on Working Memory and Quality of Life of Elderly Women

Cognitive disorders and decline in quality of life are common changes in old age that cause a wide range of problems. In order to increase the level of health and performance of the ever-increasing older adults’ population, it is necessary to understand their conditions and needs. Therefore, the current research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of selected perceptual-motor exercises on working memory and quality of life in older women. This research was a semi-experimental one, with pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of this research included all inactive older women over 60 years old living in nursing homes in Tehran. The sample of the study included 40 people selected using convenience sampling and based on the inclusion criteria and randomly assigned into control and experimental groups. The participants completed the Folstein’s mini–mental state examination, the World Health Organization Quality of Life and the Wechsler Memory Questionnaire. The experimental group participated in the perceptual-motor training program for eight weeks, three 45-minute sessions per week. The control group did their daily activities during this time. After the training program, both groups completed the questionnaires again. To analysis the data, Univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS-20 software were used (P≤.05). The results of ANCOVA after the training intervention showed a significant improvement in the posttest scores of the experimental group in terms of working memory (P=.007) and quality of life (P=.001) compared to that of the control group. According to the results of this research, it is suggested to older adults to use perceptual-motor exercises in order to improve their cognitive and physical health, according to their individual ability and environmental facilities.