High intensity endurance training is associated with better quality of life, but not with improved cognitive functions in elderly marathon runners

Impairment of cognitive functions in advanced age leads to a reduced quality of life and impaired ability to perform everyday tasks. The positive impact of physical exercise on the quality of life and well-being, also at a later age, is well established. However, the effect of endurance exercises, including long distance running and cycling, on cognitive function and mental health within the elderly population has still to be elucidated. To this end, elderly active marathoners (N = 50) aged over 60 years and non-athlete controls (N = 49) were followed for four years. Cognitive function was assessed using the CERAD test battery. In addition, the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) was applied to assess self-reported physical, mental, and emotional health. Except for age, sex and education-corrected z-values of the test "Word list recall", with marathon runners showing a decline compared to an improvement in controls (p < 0.05), there was no statistically significant difference in time trend between groups. In contrast, concerning self-reported health, scores in all eight domains of the SF-36 remained stable over time and, in nearly all of them, marathon runners showed higher self-reported health than controls. The results indicated that extensive endurance exercise is associated with improved subjective health but does not lead to better scores in cognitive performance tests in elderly persons.