Effects of Functional Fitness Enhancement through Taekwondo Training on Physical Characteristics and Risk Factors of Dementia in Elderly Women with Depression

Sun-Hong Baek, Ga-Ram Hong, Do-Kyum Min, Eun-Hee Kim and Sang-Kab Park
Additional contact information
Sun-Hong Baek: Taekwondo Institute of Health and Culture, Dong-A University, 37, Nakdong-Daero, 550, Sahagu, Busan 49315, Korea
Ga-Ram Hong: Taekwondo Institute of Health and Culture, Dong-A University, 37, Nakdong-Daero, 550, Sahagu, Busan 49315, Korea
Do-Kyum Min: Graduate School, Dong-A University, 37, Nakdong-Daero 550, Sahagu, Busan 49315, Korea
Eun-Hee Kim: Department of Taekwondo, Dong-A University, 37, Nakdong-Daero 550, Sahagu, Busan 49315, Korea
Sang-Kab Park: College of Arts and Sports, Dong-A University, 37, Nakdong-Daero, 550, Sahagu, Busan 49315, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-13

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to identify the correlations between functional fitness enhancement through a long-term Taekwondo training program and the physical characteristics and risk factors of dementia among elderly women with depression. The study has found that conducting three 60-min Taekwondo training sessions a week for the duration of 12 weeks has enhanced a number of functional fitness indexes, including hand grip strength/weight ( p < 0.01), 4-m gait speed ( p < 0.001), 3-m timed up and go ( p < 0.05), and figure-of-eight track ( p < 0.05), and significantly improved general health condition indexes as well, including percent fat ( p < 0.05), appendicular skeletal muscle mass index ( p < 0.01), systolic blood pressure ( p < 0.01), and diastolic blood pressure ( p < 0.001). Furthermore, the arteriosclerosis index and cognitive function have been found to be improved with an increase of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF; which prevents dementia) and a significant decrease of ?-amyloid—a risk factor of dementia—as a result of enhancements in serum lipids and adiponectin, confirming the positive effects of functional fitness enhancement on fighting depression, promoting physical characteristics, and reducing the risk factors of dementia.

Keywords: Taekwondo training program; depression; elderly women; functional fitness; physical characteristics; dementia risk factor; serum lipids (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/7961/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/7961/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:15:p:7961-:d:602957

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().