Perfil do Desempenho Motor e Cognitivo na Idade Adulta e Velhice

Abstract

Motor and cognitive performance in neurologically healthy adults and older people was examined in a randomsample of 300 individuals from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Formal schooling ranged from 1 to 25 years, and age variedfrom 18 to 90 years-old. Participants were evaluated through the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT),Nine Hole Peg Test (9-HPT) and Timed Walking of 25 feet (TW-25). Regression analyses showed that ageinfluences motor performance (14% of explained variance for the upper limbs and 11% for the lower limbs), whilecognitive speed was better explained by education (10,6% of explained variance). Receiver-Operating Characteristic(ROC) curves analyses pointed out to a decline in cognitive performance in individuals with lower level of schooling(less than 10 years) and worse motor performance in older individuals (more than 60 years-old). Education and ageare important variables to be taken into consideration in motor and cognitive assessments.

Keywords

• cognition
• motor coordination
• aging
• PASAT