Background and purpose: The aging process is intricately associated with a heightened susceptibility to high-risk, chronic conditions that significantly impact the overall quality of life. The prevalence of chronic neurological afflictions, exemplified by dementia, cognitive disorders, and related conditions, is escalating within the elderly demographic. Therefore, this research seeks to determine the effect of individual and team sport on the dual task performance of elderly individuals.
Materials and methods: Using a quasi-experimental design and adopting a community-centric paradigm, this study focused on elderly residents of Arak. A purposive selection method resulted in a cohort of 102 elderly individuals, aged 60 to 70, categorized into three groups: those actively engaged in individual sports (34 participants), participants involved in team sports (34 individuals), and a control group of inactive elderly individuals (34 participants). Cognitive-motor tests served as evaluative instruments for dual task performance. Data were underwent rigorous analysis using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc Tukey tests utilizing the SPSS software.
Results: The results heightened superior dual task performance among actively engaged elderly individuals in both individual and team sports compared to their inactive counterparts (P≤0.05). Interestingly, no statistically significant difference was observed between the individual and team sport cohorts (P≥0.05).
Conclusion: Both individual and team sports were found to improve dual-task in the elderly. Therefor it could be suggested that including group or individual exercise in the weekly schedule can contribute to improving the health of the elderly.