Associations of Physical Activity and Heart Rate Variability from a Two-Week ECG Monitor with Cognitive Function and Dementia: The ARIC Neurocognitive Study

Abstract

Low physical activity (PA) measured by accelerometers and low heart rate variability (HRV) measured from short-term ECG recordings are associated with worse cognitive function. Wearable long-term ECG monitors are now widely used, and some devices also include an accelerometer. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether PA or HRV measured from long-term ECG monitors was associated with cognitive function among older adults. A total of 1590 ARIC participants had free-living PA and HRV measured over 14 days using the Zio® XT Patch [aged 72–94 years, 58% female, 32% Black]. Cognitive function was measured by cognitive factor scores and adjudicated dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) status. Adjusted linear or multinomial regression models examined whether higher PA or higher HRV was cross-sectionally associated with higher factor scores or lower odds of MCI/dementia. Each 1-unit increase in the total amount of PA was associated with higher global cognition (β = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.16–0.44) and executive function scores (β = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.22–0.53) and lower odds of MCI (OR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.22–0.67) or dementia (OR = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.08–0.74). HRV (i.e., SDNN and rMSSD) was not associated with cognitive function. More research is needed to define the role of wearable ECG monitors as a tool for digital phenotyping of dementia.

Keywords

• physical activity
• heart rate variability
• dementia
• accelerometry
• ECG
• digital health