Experimental design
During the study, the participants had an isocaloric diet according to
their physical condition.
Then, participants were randomly divided into four groups including
aerobic exercise (ATG), aerobic exercise and vitamin D supplement
(ATDG), vitamin D supplement (VDG) and a control group (CG). A daily
intake of 1000 IU vitamin D per day was selected for the ATDG and VDG.
The participants of the ATG and ATDG performed three 50 minutes training
sessions per week for 8 consecutive weeks based on Rockport one-mile
walking/running test at the intensity of 60-70% of maximal heart rate
(MaxHR). The CG continued their habitual daily activities during the
period of the study. The exercise intensity was controlled with heart
rate monitoring. The training session consisted of warm-up (10 min with
20-30% MaxHR), 35 min of moderate aerobic exercises and cool-down for 5
min, respectively (5). All sessions had been sepervised by two excerise
physoplogists. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was employed in
order to measure the quality of sleep of the participants. All
participants were subjected to the Neuropsychological Test battery
Vienna (NTBV) for assessment of their neurocognitive functions. All
measurement tests including PSQI and NTBV were performed before and
after study intervention in the Labritary of Imma Khomeini International
University.