Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep 4;15(3):e12476.
doi: 10.1002/dad2.12476. eCollection 2023 Jul-Sep.

Association of physical activity with dementia and cognitive decline in UK Biobank

Xiangyuan Huang  1 , Chuen Seng Tan  1 , Nagaendran Kandiah  2 , Saima Hilal  1   3
Affiliations

Association of physical activity with dementia and cognitive decline in UK Biobank

Xiangyuan Huang et al. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). .

Abstract

Introduction: There is a lack of studies on the association between specific physical activity (PA) types and dementia. We examined the association of leisure time physical activity (LTPA), occupational physical activity (OPA), and sedentary lifestyle with dementia risk and cognitive decline using the UK-Biobank study.

Methods: Baseline PA was collected using questionnaires. A total of 502,481 dementia-free participants were recruited in 2006-2010 and followed for 10 years until the end of 2020 for the ascertainment of dementia. Associations of PA with incident dementia and cognitive decline were examined.

Results: Higher levels of LTPA and OPA and lower levels of sedentary hours were associated with lower dementia risk. The fifth quintiles of LTPA (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.53, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.43-0.67) and OPA (HR = 0.68, 95% CI:0.51-0.90) had lower dementia risk, whereas the fifth quintile of sedentary lifestyle had higher dementia risk (HR = 1.23, 95% CI:1.08-1.41).

Discussion: Our findings suggest the promotion of an active lifestyle suggested to be preventive of dementia risk. This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource under Application Number 71022.

Keywords: cognition; dementia; lifestyle; physical activity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Authors have no conflict of interest to declare. Author disclosures are available in the supporting information.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow chart of the study population *Covariates: age, sex, qualification, household income, loneliness, Townsend Index, parental dementia, alcohol drinker, ever smoked, sleep duration, BMI, hearing problem, hypertension, diabetes, and IPAQ level. **Domains: reaction time, visual memory, numeric memory, prospective memory, reasoning
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. GBD 2019 Dementia Forecasting Collaborators. Dementia Forecasting Collaborators . Estimation of the global prevalence of dementia in 2019 and forecasted prevalence in 2050: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet Public Health. 2022;7(2):e105‐e125. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00249-8 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Livingston G, Huntley J, Sommerlad A, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. Lancet. 2020;396(10248):413‐446. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30367-6 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nikitara K, Odani S, Demenagas N, Rachiotis G, Symvoulakis E, Vardavas C. Prevalence and correlates of physical inactivity in adults across 28 European countries. Eur J Public Health. 2021;31(4):840‐845. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckab067 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kivimaki M, Singh‐Manoux A, Pentti J, et al. Physical inactivity, cardiometabolic disease, and risk of dementia: an individual‐participant meta‐analysis. BMJ. 2019;365:l1495. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l1495 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Podewils LJ, Guallar E, Kuller LH, et al. Physical activity, APOE genotype, and dementia risk: findings from the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2005;161(7):639‐651. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwi092 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources