The Effect of Individual and Team Sports on Working Memory and Attention of the Elderly

Aging is a very sensitive period of human life and paying attention to the needs and issues of this stage is a universal necessity. Therefore, the purpose of this research was the effect of individual and team sports on the working memory and attention of the elderly.
The current research method was causal-comparative. The statistical population of this research was the elderly of Arak city, among them 102 elderly with an age range of 60 to 70 years were purposefully selected and participated in this study. They were divided into three groups of elderly active in individual sports, elderly active in team sports, and inactive elderly. N-back test and continuous performance test (CPT) were used to measure working memory and attention respectively. The data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's post hoc test using SPSS-26 software.
The results showed that in the working memory and attention, individual and team sports had better performance than the non-exercise group (P≤0.05), but no significant difference was observed between individual and team sports (P≥0.05).
Team and individual sports improve the working memory and attention of the elderly. Therefore, it can be suggested that to improve the health of the elderly, exercise in a team or individually should be included in their weekly schedule.