Social support-based physical activity that exerts beneficial effects for obese older adults with cognitive impairment via increasing participation in leisure-time physical activity

Obesity in older adults increases the risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and depression. Physical activity has been established as an important strategy in lifestyle interventions for obese people. This study focused on the strategy for increasing participation in physical activity, which is called social support. Although the studies found that social support helps to motivate participation in physical activity of older adults, its beneficial effects for population with obesity are still few investigations. Therefore, this study focused on developing a social support-based physical activity program for obese older adults with cognitive impairment and hypothesized that it can increase level of physical activity and reduce severity of depression and cognitive decline in obese older adults with cognitive impairment. In this study, thirty-nine participants were divided into three groups consisting of 13 obese older adults, 13 obese older adults with cognitive impairment, and 13 obese older adults with cognitive impairment and receiving the physical activity program for 4 weeks. After that, the levels of physical activity, cognition, and depression were tested in all three groups. Results showed that social support-based physical activity decreased cognitive decline and severity of depression in obese older adults with cognitive impairment. Moreover, the level of physical activity in obese older adults with cognitive impairment and receiving the physical activity program was increased by increasing participation in leisure-time physical activity. Thus, it suggested that the social support-based physical activity exerted beneficial effects for obese older adults with cognitive impairment via increasing participation in leisure-time physical activity.