Researchers led by Jungjoo "Jay" Lee at the Center for Community Health and Aging used a longitudinal design and national data from 2012 to 2020. The study was published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health and looked at how often people did 21 activities, including walking and sports.
The team tested three types of cognition: memory (recall of 10 words immediately and after five minutes), working memory (subtract seven from 100 over five trials) and attention (count backward from 20 to 10 over two trials). The analytic sample had 9,714 participants. The results show that older adults with moderate physical activity had a lower chance of developing dementia, but the authors noted study limitations.
Difficult words
- longitudinal — study that follows the same people over time
- cognition — mental processes like thinking and remembering
- memory — ability to remember information and past eventsworking memory
- attention — ability to focus on something
- participant — person who takes part in a research studyparticipants
- dementia — brain disease that causes memory and thinking problems
- limitation — problem or weakness in a study or methodlimitations
- moderate — not too much and not too little activity
- recall — ability to bring information back from memory
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Discussion questions
- Which of the 21 activities (for example walking or sports) do you do often?
- Do you think moderate activity is good for older people? Why or why not?
- Have you ever been part of a study or survey like this? What was it about?
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