Sustained Cognitive and Economic Benefits of Resistance Training Among Community- Dwelling Senior Women: A 1-Year Follow-up Study of the Brain Power Study

Cognitive decline is a major public health care issue and a well-recognized clinical manifestation of cognitive decline are falls. Seniors with cognitive impairment fall at twice the rate of peers without cognitive impairment 1, 2. Exercise training may be an effective strategy against cognitive decline 3–6 and it is recommended for prevention of falls. We recently reported that 12 months of once-weekly (1x RT) or twice-weekly resistance training (2x RT) improved selective attention and conflict resolution compared with a balance and tone program (BAT; control) among 155 community-dwelling senior women (i.e., Brain Power study; NCT00426881) 4. We also found that both resistance training programs provided better value for falls prevented compared with the BAT (control) program {Davis, 2010 #336}. As no study has examined whether benefits of exercise persist after formal cessation of an intervention, we examined whether improved selective attention and conflict resolution as well as economic benefits were sustained 12 months after formal cessation the Brain Power resistance training study.