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Multicenter Study
. 2018 Jul:64:238-243.
doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.06.116. Epub 2018 Jun 19.

Cognition and mobility show a global association in middle- and late-adulthood: Analyses from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

Naiara Demnitz  1 , David B Hogan  2 , Helen Dawes  3 , Heidi Johansen-Berg  4 , Klaus P Ebmeier  5 , Marc J Poulin  6 , Claire E Sexton  7
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Cognition and mobility show a global association in middle- and late-adulthood: Analyses from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

Naiara Demnitz et al. Gait Posture. 2018 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Given our aging population, there's great interest in identifying modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline. Studies have highlighted the relationship between aspects of mobility and cognitive processes. However, cognition and mobility are both multifaceted concepts and their interrelationships remain to be well defined.

Research question: Here, we firstly aimed to replicate cross-sectional associations between objective measures of mobility and cognition. Second, we tested whether these associations remained after the consideration of multiple age-related confounders. Finally, to test the hypothesis that the association between mobility and cognition is stronger in older adults, we examined the moderating effect of age in the association between mobility and cognition.

Methods: In the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, 28,808 community-dwelling adults (aged 45-87; 51% female) completed mobility (gait, balance and chair stands) and cognitive (memory, executive function and processing speed) assessments. General linear models were used to examine mobility-cognition relationships and the moderating effect of age.

Results: Cognitive measures were significantly associated with mobility measures (all p < 0.001). Further, age significantly moderated the mobility-cognition relationship, with the strength of the associations generally increasing with age.

Significance: All cognitive measures were related to indices of mobility, suggesting a global association. In our moderation analyses, the mobility-cognition relationship often increased with age. However, the small effect sizes observed suggest that mobility is, in isolation, not a strong correlate of cognitive performance in middle and late-adulthood.

Keywords: Balance; CLSA; Cognitive aging; Gait; Physical function.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Plots illustrate the moderating effect of age on the associations between walking time and cognitive measures. Each plot shows the estimated effect when age is fixed at given values (red). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Plots illustrate the moderating effect of age on the associations between chair stands and cognitive measures. Each plot shows the estimated effect when age is fixed at given values (red). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Plots illustrate the moderating effect of age on the associations between balance and cognitive measures. Each plot shows the estimated effect when age is fixed at given values (red). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Plots illustrate the moderating effect of age on the associations between balance and cognitive measures. Each plot shows the estimated effect when age is fixed at given values (red). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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