Being and remaining physically active throughout adulthood was linked with higher cognition at age 69, a longitudinal cohort study showed.

Effect sizes were similar across all adult ages, suggesting that being physically active at any time in adulthood — even as little as once a month — was tied to higher cognition, reported Sarah-Naomi James, PhD, of University College London, in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.

“These findings have shifted our understanding as we show that the timing of being physically active across 30 years of adulthood and the intensity at certain points were not as important for maintaining good cognitive function later in life,” James told MedPage Today.

“Instead, the results indicate that just starting to do a small amount of activity at any time across adulthood and maintaining it was linked preserved later-life cognitive function,” she said. “Being physically active for as long as possible is the most optimal.”

The study followed 1,417 participants in the 1946 British Birth Cohort, a long-running U.K. study of people born the same week in 1946. Participants (53% women) reported leisure time physical activity at five time points — ages 36, 43, 53, 60-64, and 69 — indicating whether they were not active (no participation in physical activity/month), moderately active (participated 1-4 times/month), or most active (5 or more times/month).

Cognition at age 69 was assessed with the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-III (ACE-III) to evaluate cognitive state, word learning tests to gauge verbal memory, and visual search tests to measure processing speed.

Overall, 11% of participants were physically inactive at all five time points; 17% were active at one, 20% were active at two, 20% were active at three, 17% were active at four, and 15% were active at five.

Compared with those who were inactive, those who were physically active with one or more activities per month during one or more time periods had higher cognitive scores at age 69.

Being active across more time periods in adulthood was related to higher ACE-III and word learning test scores at age 69 (P<0.01). The largest effect size was between cumulative physical activity and ACE-III scores at age 69, especially for people who were active in all five periods.

People who were most physically active at any age had significantly higher cognitive visual search speed scores at age 69, but associations between moderate physical activity and visual search speed were less prominent.

There was no significant interaction of sex or APOE4 status on the relationship between cumulative physical activity and ACE-III scores. Childhood cognition, socioeconomic status, and education attenuated the effect size between accumulative physical activity and ACE-III scores, but results mainly remained significant. Adjusting for cardiovascular risk at age 69 and mental health at age 69 did not further weaken relationships.

The cohort had a disproportional attrition over the years of participants who were socially disadvantaged and less healthy, which may have influenced results. In addition, physical activity represented self-reported leisure-time activity.

“An outstanding question and limitation of this work is that we don’t know what types of activity may confer the most benefit,” James acknowledged.

“We also don’t know how physical activity is linked with higher cognition and we will be further looking at potential mechanisms including links with later-life brain health, cardiovascular health, cerebral blood flow, inflammation, and neurotrophic factors,” she added.

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