Cognitive function and type of physical activity: results from the FRéLE longitudinal study

Abstract

Abstract Background Previous cohorts have been notably criticized for not studying the different type of physical activity and not investigating household activities. The objective of this work was to analyse the relation between physical activity and cognitive decline in older people living in community. Impact of type of physical activity on the results has been realised. Methods The study used data from the longitudinal and observational study , FrèLE (FRagility: Longitudinal Study of Expressions). The collected data included: socio-demographic variables, lifestyle, and health status (frailty, comorbidities, cognitive status, depression). Cognitive decline was assessed by using: MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination)and MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment). Physical activity was assessed by the PASE (Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly). This tool is structured in three sections: the leisure activity, the domestic activity and the professional activity. Logistic regressions and proportional hazards regression models (Cox) were used to estimate the risk of cognitive disorders. Results At baseline, the prevalence of cognitive disorders was 6.9% according to MMSE. In total, 1326 participants without cognitive disorders were included in the analysis. The mean age was 77.4 years, and 52.1% of the participants were women. After a 2 years long follow-up, we found cognitive disorders on 92 participants (6.9%). Physical activity at baseline is lower in older adults for whom cognitive decline was observed after two years of follow-up. Subclass analyses showed that leisure and domestic activities were associated to cognitive decline, but not professional activities. Conclusions Analysis showed a relationship between cognitive disorders and type of physical activity. The current study will be completed by the MoCA for mild cognitive impairment. These findings compared to other ongoing studies will contribute to the debate on the beneficial effects of physical activity on cognition. Key messages The work allowed us to analyze the link between the different types of physical activity and mild to severe cognitive disorders. The aim is to put in place preventive policies of aging. The work allowed us to see the effect of the different types of physical activity and the impact of the statistical method on the results.