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Physical fitness and lifetime cognitive change

From the Department of Psychology (I.J.D.), School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Department of Mental Health (L.J.W.), University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK; Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (G.D.B.), Glasgow, UK; and Department of Geriatric Medicine (J.M.S.), University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Ian J. Deary, Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK; e-mail: I.Deary{at}ed.ac.uk

Objective: To test the hypothesis that physical fitness is associated with more successful cognitive aging.

Methods: Surviving participants (N = 460) of the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 were tested on the same general cognitive test at age 11 and 79 years. Measures of grip strength, 6-meter walk time, and lung function (forced expiratory volume from the lungs in 1 second [FEV₁]) were assessed at age 79 years.

Results: A latent physical fitness trait, derived by principal components analysis of the three fitness measures, was significantly associated with successful cognitive aging. Cognitive score at age 11, sex, social class, and APOE-4 genotype were included as covariables. Higher childhood IQ was associated with better lung function in old age.

Conclusions: Physical fitness is associated with cognitive reserve. Intervention studies aimed at making older people fitter are good candidates to improve cognitive aging.

The study was funded by the United Kingdom’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Disclosure: Ian Deary is the recipient of a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award. Lawrence Whalley is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. David Batty is funded by a Wellcome Advanced Training Fellowship.

Received December 9, 2005. Accepted in final form June 6, 2006.

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