According to the results of a study, three sessions of physical exercise per week, of a maximum duration of one hour, could improve oral comprehension in the elderly.
- Physical exercise improves understanding of language in the elderly who speak only one language.
- After six months to do three weekly sessions, they were 7 % faster to detect keywords in a sentence pronounced orally.
- On the other hand, among bilinguals, physical exercise has not brought any benefit regarding oral comprehension.
Doing physical exercise is good for health but, for the elderly, it is also beneficial for oral comprehension! This is shown by a new study whose results have been published in the journal Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition.
Three physical exercise sessions per week
In this study, participants spoke either only English (monolingual) or two languages (bilingual). All were elderly, with a light cognitive impairment. For a little over six months, they followed a physical exercise program. They started with a four -week familiarization period, when the intensity and the duration of the exercise were lower. Then, the pace remained the same throughout the study: three sessions per week, duration ranging from 40 minutes to an hour, heating and recovery included. In detail, it was a circuit training session (3 series of six 45 -second exercises, with 30 or 90 seconds of rest each time) and two cardio sessions per week. During the latter, participants could do either asceeting or jogging.
Monolinguals, 7 % faster to detect words
Before and after the study, the participants passed tests to assess their ability to recognize certain words in sentences pronounced orally. For bilingual participants, the results were the same. On the other hand, monolinguals were 7 % faster to detect keywords after six months of regular physical activity.
“” “We have noticed different results in the bilingual group and in the Monolingue group, underlines Dr. Eunice Fernandes, corresponding author of the study, in a press release. This is most likely due to the various cognitive requirements involved in language treatment when adding a second language”.
In both groups, the results were the same in terms of health. The researchers have indeed observed an improvement in the physical form of the participants thanks to the three weekly sessions.
“” “It is the first study (…) which establishes a cause and effect link between the improvement of physical condition and the treatment of language, especially in the elderly, Indicates Dr. Katrien Segaert, one of the authors of the study. Language treatment is an important and interesting field of study: the ability to communicate is an essential function of everyone’s daily life. The results of the monolingual group show that improving physical condition is linked to better cognition, which underlines the importance of regular exercise to age in good health”.
Health insurance recommends that people over the age of 65 to practice, every day, or 30 minutes of physical intensity physical activity (without shortness of breath) or 15 minutes of high intensity physical activity (which causes breath).
