Associations of Cognitively Active Versus Passive Sedentary Behaviors and Cognition in Older Adults.

Background: Cognitively stimulating sedentary behavior (SB) may positively impact cognition. This study aimed to (1) describe participation across types of SB among older adults with and without cognitive impairment and (2) examine how baseline SB participation impacts cognition, longitudinally.

Methods: We used National Health and Aging Trends Study data from rounds 6 to 11 for cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Participants were 2244 community-dwelling older adults who were selected for the SB module in round 6. The SBs were categorized as active (eg, hobbies) and passive (eg, television). Participants were also categorized as having intact or impaired orientation, memory, and executive function based on tests of orientation, recall, and the clock-drawing test. We calculated descriptive statistics characterizing SB by cognitive status. Aim 2 involved competing risks proportional hazard models of participants with intact cognition (n = 1574) to identify associations between baseline SB and changes in cognition, moves to institutional care, and death over 6 years.

Results: Participants (40% ≥ 80 years, 55% female, 77% White non-Hispanic) averaged 8.75 (SD = 4.42) hours of daily SB, including 4.05 (SD = 2.32) hours of passive SB and 4.75 (SD = 3.13) hours of active SB. Active SB >3 hours per day was associated with a lower risk of impaired orientation (subdistribution hazard models = 0.60; P = .048) and memory (subdistribution hazard models = 0.62; P = .02). Baseline participation in passive SB did not impact the risk of having a change in cognition during rounds 7 to 11.

Conclusion: Cognitive decline was lower among older adults who participated in more active SB. Thus, type of SB should be considered in examining the impact on cognition.