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Objectives Poor physical function is associated with negative health and cognitive outcomes. Although nine studies demonstrated that cognitive training reduces age-related declines in physical function, only one study has examined the effects beyond immediate posttest changes. The first aim of this study was to assess the impact of three cognitive training programs on physical function measures across 10 years and the second aim was to examine whether baseline cognitive self-efficacy or depressive symptoms moderated training effects. Method Using data from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) randomized controlled trial, older adults in a no-contact control condition (n = 698) were compared to those receiving processing speed (n = 702), memory (n = 703), or reasoning (n = 694) training. Intention-to-treat (ITT) and dosage analyses were conducted for grip strength and Turn 360. Participants were followed up to 10 years posttest. Results There were no significant ITT effects of processing speed, memory, or reasoning training assignment to any physical function outcome (p >.05). Dosage models indicated that there were small age-related attenuation effects in Turn 360 decline with more processing speed training (b = −.011, p <.001), memory training (b = −.011, p <.001), and reasoning training (b = −.012, p <.001). There was no significant transfer to grip strength. These training gains were greater for those with more baseline depressive symptoms who received more processing speed training (b = −.001, p <.001). Discussion This is the first study to demonstrate the effects of cognitive training to complex physical function across 10 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which examined age-related differences in relationship magnitude between physical function and cognition in healthy older adults. Topics covered include how the time-varying effects modeling (TVEM) was used in the study, the role of increased age in the associations between grip strength and all cognitive domains, and inconsistencies found with regards to the relationships between physical and cognitive performance.