Purpose: Exercise has been shown to have various proximal and distal benefits among older adults such as improving physical fitness, cognitive functioning, and health-related quality of life (HR-QOL). Despite this evidence, limited research has investigated pathway change of these outcomes. The primary purpose of this study was to test if older adults who improved in physical fitness measures from engaging in multicomponent exercise training for 12 weeks predicted change in proximal (cognitive functioning) and distal (HR-QOL) outcomes, respectively.
Methods: Participants (n = 110) were healthy, older adults (M = 72, SD = 7.24) that comprised an exercise-intervention and control group. The intervention consisted of exercising in a supervised laboratory setting for 12 weeks.
Results: Structural equation modeling revealed group type to predict change in physical performance and the maximum walking test with comparable effect sizes. Physical performance in turn predicted improvement in processing speed (β = 0.23, p = 0.013) executive functioning (β = 0.26, p = 0.006), and HR-QOL (β = 0.13, p = 0.031). However, only executive functioning was found to significantly predict HR-QOL (β = 0.49, p < 0.001) over processing speed (p > 0.05).
Conclusions: Between two fitness measures, the physical performance test demonstrated better predictive validity in proximal and distal health outcomes. In addition to physical fitness, older adults who engage in multi-component exercise sessions regularly can improve their executive functioning, which in turn enhances their HR-QOL.
Keywords: Cognition; Exercise; Fitness; Older adults; Quality of life.