Abstract
Objective
To examine the associations of physical activity (PA) frequency (both moderate and
vigorous intensity) and PA levels with cognitive function.
Patients and Methods
Data of individuals 50 years or older, from 20 European countries (along with Israel),
were collected from 2004 to November 2013 in the biannual Survey of Health, Ageing
and Retirement in Europe. A total of 104,909 participants were assessed for cognitive
function at least once (mean follow-up length, 29.5±35.7 months). Baseline moderate-
and vigorous-intensity PA were reported by participants as more than once a week,
once a week, one to three times a month, or hardly ever or never. With regard to PA
frequency, participants were categorized as inactive, low active, intermediate active,
or high active. The main outcome measure is a cognitive composite score created by
summing the z scores of 4-item temporal orientation, 10-word list for delayed recall, and verbal
fluency.
Results
Adjusted, 2-level mixed-effect regressions found that compared with doing no PA, doing
PA more than once a week, once a week, or one to three times a month was positively
associated with the composite score (β coefficients varied from 0.52 to 0.75 for moderate-intensity
PA and from 0.26 to 0.33 for vigorous-intensity PA). Similarly, compared with the
inactive category, high-active, intermediate-active, and low-active categories had
positive associations with the composite score (β varied from 0.77 to 1.10). Positive
associations were also obtained between PA variables and the raw scores of cognitive
tests.
Conclusion
Physical activity has dose-response associations with cognitive function, with even
low PA frequencies (few times per month) being positively associated with cognitive
function during aging.
Abbreviations and Acronyms:
PA (physical activity), SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: October 06, 2016
Footnotes
Grant Support: This study uses data from SHARE Wave 5 release 1.0.0, as of March 31, 2015 (http://dx.doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w5.100); SHARE Wave 4 release 1.1.1, as of March 28, 2013 (http://dx.doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w4.111); SHARE Waves 1 and 2 release 2.6.0, as of November 29, 2013 (http://dx.doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w1.260 and http://dx.doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w2.260); or SHARELIFE release 1.0.0, as of November 24, 2010 (http://dx.doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w3.100). The SHARE data collection has been primarily funded by the European Commission through the 5th Framework Programme (project QLK6-CT-2001-00360 in the thematic programme Quality of Life), through the 6th Framework Programme (projects SHARE-I3, RII-CT-2006-062193; COMPARE, CIT5-CT-2005-028857; SHARELIFE, CIT4-CT-2006-028812), and through the 7th Framework Programme (SHARE-PREP, no. 211909; SHARE-LEAP, no. 227822; SHARE M4, no. 261982). This work was also funded by the US National Institute on Aging (grant nos. U01 AG09740-13S2 , P01 AG005842 , P01 AG08291 , P30 AG12815 , R21 AG025169 , Y1-AG-4553-01 , IAG BSR06-11 , and OGHA 04-064 ), by the German Ministry for Education and Research, and by various national sources (see www.share-project.org for a full list of funding institutions).
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