Live Poster Session: Zoom Link
Abstract: Recent literature has demonstrated a clear link between exercise and cognitive ability. These benefits are most profoundly illustrated in the preservation of cognitive ability and mental health in the elderly. However, adults and even children have also been shown to benefit cognitively from exercise, particularly aerobic exercise. Whether this is some physiologic effect of exercise itself though, or just a product of the healthy body which exercise creates is less well understood. For this reason, the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health was used to look at the association between general health, rated 1-5, and how well respondents scored on a cognitive test. While an association between health and cognitive test scores was found to exist, further research is necessary in order to refine our understanding of what aspects of health, if any, are important for cognition, and a larger sample size might greatly enhance the reliability of these results. In addition, a relationship between education and cognition was also discovered while utilizing education level as a possible confounding variable, though whether education itself is associated with increased cognitive abilities or just the sample of people who choose to pursue (and succeed in) education in the first place, is unknown. Understanding more about the relationships between health, exercise and mental acuity has great implications for people of all ages and walks of life. Hopefully, more research on the subject will allow for extended acuity in the elderly, maximal achievement in youth and optimal performance in adulthood.
Eric-March-QAC-Project