Physical activity and sedentary behavior in cognitive and functional aging: the Adult Changes in Thought cohort
Creators: name: Rosenberg, Dori
name: Greenwood-Hickman, Mikael
name: Gardiner, Paul
Publisher: name: The Health & Fitness Journal of Canada
Year: 2022

description: Purpose: This symposium shares new insights on the roles of sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA) in aging and cognitive and functional health from data collected as part of a long-term cohort study of older adults. Description: Few epidemiologic studies have examined device-measured sitting patterns and health outcomes. Furthermore, there is a need to continue understanding the role of prospectively measured PA in relation to older adult health. The Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study is an on-going epidemiologic study of adults age ≥65 years that began in 1994. Participants complete biennial assessments including assessment of cognitive function with the Cognitive Assessment Screening Instrument (CASI), measures of gait speed (time to complete a 10-foot course) and time to complete 5 chair stands as metrics of physical function, and a self-reported measure of PA (frequency of walking). Starting in 2016, ACT participants could enroll in an activity monitoring sub-study that involved wearing at least 1 of 2 devices around the clock: a thigh-worn activPAL and waist-worn ActiGraph. After removing self-reported sleep time, mean daily device measures of duration and patterns of sitting, standing, Light-intensity Physical Activity (LPA), and Moderate- to-Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA) were calculated. Chair: Dr. Dori Rosenberg, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI). Introduction to Symposium Presenter 1: Dr. Dori Rosenberg, KPWHRI. Title: Cross-sectional associations between ACT device-based activity pattern measures and physical function Presenter 2: Dr. Mikael Anne Greenwood-Hickman, KPWHRI. Title: Prospective associations between ACT device- based activity pattern measures and cognitive function Presenter 3: Paul Gardiner, University of South Queensland. Title: Associations of longitudinal walking trajectories with cognitive function.” Results: Of ACT participants approached to join the sub-study, 1151 (61%) consented to wear Actigraph, 1135 (60%) consented to wear activPAL, and 1054 (56%) consented to wear both. Of those, 1,088 had valid wear data (≥4 days with 10-20 hours of data/day) for Actigraph, 1,039 for activPAL, and 954 for both devices. Consenting sub-study participants were generally younger with fewer chronic conditions than those who did not consent. Cross-sectionally, higher measures of total sedentary behavior (sitting time), higher pattern indicators of uninterrupted sitting (mean sitting bout duration) and lower measures of PA (steps, MVPA) were associated with worse physical function. Measures of PA (steps, MVPA) were more consistently associated with cognitive function than measures of SB over 2-years. Trajectories of higher sustained walking over time were associated with higher cognitive function at later-life follow-up. Conclusions: These findings begin to shed light on the potential functional impacts of activity patterns as we age. These findings suggest that both the amount we sit and move, as well as the pattern in which we do these activities throughout the day, may impact physical function in older age. However, only metrics of PA were associated with cognitive function. In the future with ACT’s data we will be able to link PA and SB measures to prospective changes in cognitive and physical function.
description: The Health &amp; Fitness Journal of Canada, Vol. 14 No. 3 (2021): Proceedings from the 8th International Society for Physical Activity and Health Congress