Association between sedentary behavior and the risk of dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

An increasing number of original studies suggest that sedentary behavior is associated with the risk of dementia, but the results remain inconsistent and inconclusive. In this meta-analysis, we analyzed available observational epidemiological evidence to identify the association between sedentary behavior and the risk of dementia. We searched PubMed and Embase from their inception to March 2019 to identify observational studies examining the association between sedentary behavior and risk of dementia. Two authors independently extracted data and assessed study quality using predefined criteria. The Q statistics and I² methods were used to test for heterogeneity. The publication bias of the included studies was also estimated using Begg's and Egger's tests. We identified 18 relevant cohort studies involving 250,063 participants and 2269 patients with dementia. Pooled result showed that sedentary behavior was significantly associated with increased risk of dementia (RR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.12-1.51). In addition, subgroup analyses by state, and controlling for the concomitant effects of age, sex, education were conducted for the increase of dementia risk, relating to sedentary, respectively. In general, these subgroup analyses showed no statistically significant differences. The results of our meta-analysis suggested that sedentary behavior was independently associated with a significantly increased risk of dementia, which might have important implications in conducting etiological studies for dementia and developing strategies for dementia prevention.

Comprehensive Model for Physical and Cognitive Frailty: Current Organization and Unmet Needs

“…Several chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension accelerate the onset and progression of motoric disability and cognitive impairment. All this information implies that physical exercise can exert a protective action against muscle loss and dementia acting on modulation of endothelial function and cross-talk molecules of the so-called "brain-muscle axis" (Yan et al, 2020) (Figure 2).…”

A multi-discipline phenotyping platform for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease employed on a novel, humanized APOEε4.Trem2*R47H mouse model

“…In the human population, sedentary lifestyle is correlated with an increased risk of LOAD (45)(46)(47). Therefore, to determine if physical activity influenced transcriptional changes in B6.APOE4.Trem2*R47H mice, a running wheel was provided in the home cage of 22 month old male mice for two months.…”

Association between sedentary behaviour and risk of dementia: an evidence gap

“…Given the lack of a cure, it is important to investigate risk factors for dementia to target prevention initiatives. A study recently published in Translational Psychiatry by Yan et al 1 examines the association between sedentary behaviour [sic] and the risk of dementia. However, the authors have misused the term sedentary behaviour, which misrepresents their findings and leads to a false conclusion.…”

“…Overall, although there was a slight trend towards more sedentary behaviour being associated with worse cognitive function, none of these reviews were able to distinguish a clear association of sedentary behaviour with the risk of dementia. Therefore, a gap remains, which was why we were encouraged to read this article by Yan et al 1 . However, upon further investigation of the article, it became clear that it does not address this association, and thus, the gap still remains.…”

“…More specifically, the article fails to properly define ‘sedentary behaviour’ as the exposure variable. As a result of this, none of the studies included within the systematic review and meta-analysis by Yan et al 1 were in fact reporting ‘sedentary behaviour’ as the exposure variable but rather physical inactivity (see Table 1 ). Hence, it is recommended that the authors revise their manuscript to remove any mentions of sedentary behaviour and replace them with ‘physical inactivity’.…”