Brief mind-body exercise in high-latitude aging: reduced sedentarism and domain-specific cognitive/social benefits

Older adults living at high southern latitudes face compounded barriers to mobility and social participation due to cold, wind, and seasonality. Visuospatial-executive functions, which support everyday tasks such as route finding, dual-task walking, and planning in older adults, are particularly vulnerable to age-related decline after the seventh decade of life. Low-dose, climate-adapted mind-body exercise (MBE), delivered once weekly in community settings, may offer a feasible way to reduce sedentary time and support cognitive and social functioning, yet evidence from sub-Antarctic settings is scarce. We tested whether a short, standardized MBE program produces preliminary changes in sedentary behavior, physical activity, cognition, and socio-affective outcomes.

In a pre-experimental single-group pre-post design, community-dwelling older people (N = 44; Punta Arenas, Chile; mean age 69.7 ± 5.3 años) completed 24 supervised sessions (60 min, 1/week) across 24 weeks. Outcomes were IPAQ-Short (MET-min/week; sitting min/day), cognition (MoCA), and empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI). Bayesian linear mixed-effects models estimated pre-post changes and moderation by age, sex, and education.

Sitting time decreased (β = -0.71; 95% CrI -2.07 to 0.52; pd = 86.1%), and weekly physical activity increased (β = 0.52; -0.76 to 1.81; pd = 78.9%). Age moderated sedentariness change (age × time β = 0.46; 0.03 to 0.89; pd = 98%: relatively younger participants reduced sitting more). Global MoCA remained stable (β = -0.27; -1.63 to 1.10; pd = 65.2%), while the visuospatial-executive domain tended to improve (β = 0.45; -0.87 to 1.78; pd = 74.5%). Empathy (IRI total) increased (β = 0.59; -0.75 to 1.94; pd = 81.2%) with a sex interaction (sex × time β = -0.97; -1.92 to -0.07; pd = 97.8%: women improved more).

A brief, indoor, regionally adapted MBE program is feasible and produces a meaningful profile of benefits, including reduced sedentarism, selective enhancement of executive-visuospatial function, and increased empathy, in older people living at high southern latitudes.