Objectives  To study the effects of Chinese traditional sports yi jin jing on cognitive function and peripheral blood of old people; to detect the effective fitness means for improving cognitive function of old people and possible influence mechanism.

  Methods  cluster random sampling method was used, and 60-69 years old healthy people in some communities in Shanghai were recruited and divided into 2 groups:the control group and the test group.The control group engaged in daily physical activity without any sports exercise, while the test group were subjected to yi jin jing exercise intervention for three months.Before and after the experiment, the cognitive function was tested and the blood sample was collected for BDNF analysis.

  Results  Before the experiment, there was no significant difference in the subjects' cognitive level score and the peripheral blood BDNF level between the control and the test group.After the experiment, the cognitive level score of intervention group subjects was significantly higher than that of the control group, with a significantly higher cognitive level score than that before the experiment.The variation trend of peripheral blood BDNF level was consistent with the cognitive level score, and the correlation analysis showed that the cognitive function improvement was positively correlated to the increase of peripheral blood BDNF level.

  Conclusions  Three months yi jin jing exercise can obviously improve the cognitive function of healthy old people, and this improvement is related to the increase in peripheral blood BDNF level.