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. 2023 Aug 29;15(1):143.
doi: 10.1186/s13195-023-01293-8.

High-intensity walking in midlife is associated with improved memory in physically capable older adults

Young Min Choe  1   2 , Guk-Hee Suh  1   2 , Boung Chul Lee  1   3 , Ihn-Geun Choi  1   4 , Hyun Soo Kim  5 , Jong Wan Kim  6 , Jaeuk Hwang  7 , Dahyun Yi  8 , Jee Wook Kim  9   10
Affiliations

High-intensity walking in midlife is associated with improved memory in physically capable older adults

Young Min Choe et al. Alzheimers Res Ther. .

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the associations of midlife- and late life-initiated walking with Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related cognitive decline in humans. We aimed to investigate whether high-intensity, prolonged, midlife-initiated walking is associated with changes in AD-related cognitive decline in physically capable older adults.

Methods: We studied 188 physically capable participants aged 65-90 years without dementia who underwent comprehensive clinical assessment, including of their walking modality (i.e., intensity, duration, midlife- or late life-onset), memory- or non-memory and total cognitive performance, and blood or nutritional biomarkers.

Results: The walking group showed better episodic memory (B = 2.852, SE = 1.214, β = 0.144, p = 0.020), but not non-memory cognition, than the non-walking group. High-intensity walking starting in midlife was significantly associated with better episodic memory (B = 9.360, SE = 3.314, β = 0.446, p = 0.005) compared to the non-walking group. In contrast, there were no differences in cognition according to walking duration, regardless of the onset time. The walking group also showed a similar association with overall cognition.

Conclusions: Among physically capable older adults without dementia, walking, particularly at high intensity and starting in midlife, is associated with improved episodic memory, an AD-related cognitive domain. Further attention should be paid to the role of walking in terms of AD prevention.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Intensity; Memory; Midlife-initiated; Walking.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Plots of the associations between walking and cognition (A–F): A walking vs. total score (TS), B walking vs. memory score, C walking vs. non-memory score, D midlife-initiated walking intensity vs. TS, E midlife-initiated walking intensity vs. memory score, and F midlife-initiated walking intensity vs. non-memory score. A–F were adjusted for potential covariates; mean cognition values are presented and error bars represent standard error
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