Daily Movement Patterns and Their Association With Executive Function in Middle-aged and Older Adults: Evidence from the Swedish CardioPulmonary bioImage Study-Gothenburg Cohort

Abstract

Introduction: Executive functions (EF) is essential for cognitive aging and vascular cognitive impairment. Habitual physical activity (PA) has been shown to yield positive effects on EF in aging. In this study, we aim (1) to investigate the relationship between EF and time spent in sedentary behaviour (SED), light-PA (LIPA), moderate-PA (MPA), and vigorous-PA (VPA), respectively; and (2) to examine the potential beneficial effect of combined movement behaviours. Methods: The study consisted of 4592 participants (women: 52.6%), aged 50 to 65 years, from the Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study(SCAPIS) in Gothenburg region (data collection: 2013-2017). The Trail Making Tests (A and B) were applied to evaluate the EF. ActiGraph accelerometer was employed to evaluate the daily movement patterns objectively. After adjusting for covariates in demographic factors, cardiorespiratory fitness, and vascular risk factors, piecewise linear and linear regression models were used to examine the relationship between movement patterns and EF. Results: In the fully adjusted model, when daily sedentary time was less than 10 hours, an increased SED time was positively associated with EF score. However, a negative association was observed between SED time and EF score when daily sedentary time exceeded 10 hours. When daily LIPA time exceeded 4 hours, LIPA time was found to have a negative association with EF score. An increase in MPA time was positively associated with EF score when daily MPA was less than 45 minutes. A significant positive association was observed between conducting daily VPA within 20 minutes and EF score. The majority of participants in our study demonstrated a movement pattern characterized by high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, sedentary time within 10 hours, LPA more than 4 hours, MPA more than 45 minutes, and VPA more than 20 minutes. This particular movement pattern was significantly and positively associated with EF scores compared to other groups. Discussion: The association between EF and specific movement behaviours varied depending on their daily duration. In this study, the majority of middle-aged and older adults demonstrated an active movement pattern, which was positively associated with EF. Further research is needed to investigate the underlying pathways that explain this