Dynamic Associations of Change in Physical Activity and Change in Cognitive Function: Coordinated Analyses of Four Longitudinal Studies
Table 4
VLS participant characteristics.
Measure
Year of testing
Baseline ()
Year 3 ()
Year 6 ()
Year 9 ()
Year 12 ()
Year 15 ()
Year 18 ()
M (SD)
M (SD)
M (SD)
M (SD)
M (SD)
M (SD)
M (SD)
Retention from Previous testing (%)a
—
74
79
72
68
75
57
Age
68.6 (6.7)
71.3 (6.6)
73.7 (6.4)
76.5 (5.9)
79.3 (5.2)
82.2 (4.6)
85.1 (3.6)
Years of education at baseline
14.9 (3.3)
15.4 (3.2)
15.6 (3.1)
15.8 (3.1)
15.9 (3.1)
15.2 (3.1)
14.8 (2.8)
Sex, female ( (%))
614 (63)
450 (62)
348 (61)
252 (61)
177 (63)
60 (66)
35 (67)
Reasoningb
11.2 (4.5)
11.7 (4.2)
10.4 (4.7)
10.4 (4.6)
9.9 (4.6)
7.5 (4.7)
6.5 (4.2)
Fluency
17.7 (4.3)
17.9 (4.4)
17.8 (4.4)
17.2 (4.8)
16.3 (4.9)
14.7 (5.8)
13.8 (5.4)
Memoryc
13.7 (5.9)
14.6 (6.0)
14.7 (6.2)
14.9 (6.4)
11.8 (5.5)
13.0 (6.3)
—
Semantic knowledge
43.7 (7.4)
44.7 (6.2)
44.3 (6.0)
44.2 (5.8)
43.5 (5.7)
42.7 (7.1)
42.6 (6.6)
Physical activity
15.4 (5.1)
15.4 (5.1)
15.0 (4.9)
14.8 (5.2)
13.4 (5.1)
14.0 (5.2)
12.3 (5.0)
Physical activity change
0.0 (0.0)
–0.1 (4.0)
–0.8 (4.2)
–1.3 (4.6)
–2.8 (4.8)
–2.7 (5.0)
–4.4 (5.2)
M: mean, SD: standard deviation. The scoring range for each measure with a defined upper limit are as follows: Reasoning 0–20, Fluency 0-maximum number of words produced in 6 minutes, Memory 0–30, Vocabulary 0–54. Physical Activity 0–36. The physical activity change scores are on a normal metric with means of approximately 0 and SD of approximately 0.8.
aThe 1986 cohort was followed for up to 18 years, the 1993 cohort for up to 12.
bThe reasoning measure was not given until year 6 for the 1986 cohort.
cThe memory measure was not given in year 18.
