Total daily physical activity and the risk of AD and cognitive decline in older adults

Studies examining the link between objective measures of total daily physical activity and incident Alzheimer disease (AD) are lacking. We tested the hypothesis that an objective measure of total daily physical activity predicts incident AD and cognitive decline.

Total daily exercise and nonexercise physical activity was measured continuously for up to 10 days with actigraphy (Actical®; Philips Healthcare, Bend, OR) from 716 older individuals without dementia participating in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a prospective, observational cohort study. All participants underwent structured annual clinical examination including a battery of 19 cognitive tests.