Physical Activity Patterns and Cognitive Health among Older Adults in the United States

Abstract

We assessed the association between physical activity (PA) patterns and cognitive health. Using the 2011–2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data among older adults (≥60 years), we defined scoring below the 25th percentile in the average z-scores from 3 cognitive tests as having low cognitive performance. We used latent class analysis to categorize PA patterns and examined their association with cognitive performance using logistic regressions while adjusting for relevant covariates. We identified three PA groups: inactive (50.2%), moderate intensity leisure (34.5%), and high intensity multiple activities (15.3%). Compared to the inactive group, the moderate intensity leisure and high intensity multiple activities groups were less likely to have low cognitive performance (adjusted proportion ratio .85; 95% CI: .75, .94; and .76; 95% CI: .57, .96). The results highlight the need for improving cognitive health of a large proportion of physically inactive older adults by promoting multiple types of PA.

Cognitive Reserve, Physical Reserve, and Cognitive Efficiency of Older People Living in the Sardinian Blue Zone. An Exploratory Study

“…Assuming an applied viewpoint, as suggested by Calatayud et al (2022), these results encourage the promotion of specific multidomain trainings aimed at boosting both physical reserve and cognitive health in later lifespan through regular and moderate physical exercises (e.g., walking, aerobic exercises, gardening), cognitively demanding individual activities (e.g., reading a book, playing a musical instrument), and leisure activities empowering both the cognitive and social functioning (e.g., hobbies implying novel information processing such as learning a second language or to use a computer, playing bridge). This kind of intervention would be particularly useful for physically inactive older individuals who are more at risk of developing cognitive decline (Li et al, 2023) and for those who performed high physically demanding jobs but with low cognitive demands, because they are more at risk to exhibit poorer cognition (e.g., less efficient executive functions) and lower performance in activities of daily living (Calatayud et al, 2022). In this context, our study confirms the pivotal role played by regular ambulation, which was previously found very beneficial in terms of successful aging.…”

Factors associated with Alzheimer's Disease Dementia prevalence in the United States: A county-level spatial machine learning analysis

“…In the US, it has been used for the identification of spatial clusters of AD mortality rates [19], spatiotemporal clusters of dementia mortality [20], and spatial and spatio-temporal hotspots of dementia hospitalization rates [21]. However, only a limited number of geospatial modeling studies have been conducted to examine the local impact of neighborhood characteristics on AD dementia distribution.…”