IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2004.055574_8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of physical activity on cognitive functioning in middle age: Evidence from the whitehall II prospective cohort study

Author

Listed:
  • Singh-Manoux, A.
  • Hillsdon, M.
  • Brunner, E.
  • Marmot, M.

Abstract

Objectives. We examined the association between physical activity and cognitive functioning in middle age. Methods. Data were derived from a prospective occupational cohort study of 10308 civil servants aged 35-55 years at baseline (phase 1; 1985-1988). Physical activity level, categorized as low, medium, or high, was assessed at phases 1, 3 (1991-1994), and 5 (1997-1999). Cognitive functioning was tested at phase 5, when respondents were 46-68 years old. Results. In both prospective (odds ratio [OR] = 1.65; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.30, 2.10) and cross-sectional (OR = 1.79; 95% CI = 1.38, 2.32) analyses, low levels of physical activity were a risk factor for poor performance on a measure of fluid intelligence. Analyses aimed at assessing cumulative effects (summary of physical activity levels at the 3 time points) showed a graded linear relationship with fluid intelligence, with persistently low levels of physical activity being particularly harmful (OR = 2.21; 95% CI = 1.37, 3.57). Conclusions. Low levels of physical activity are a risk factor for cognitive functioning in middle age, fluid intelligence in particular.

Suggested Citation

  • Singh-Manoux, A. & Hillsdon, M. & Brunner, E. & Marmot, M., 2005. "Effects of physical activity on cognitive functioning in middle age: Evidence from the whitehall II prospective cohort study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(12), pages 2252-2258.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2004.055574_8
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2004.055574
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2004.055574
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2004.055574?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huang, Wei & Zhou, Yi, 2013. "Effects of education on cognition at older ages: Evidence from China's Great Famine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 54-62.
    2. Yiping Yang & Le Sun & Buxin Han & Pingping Liu, 2023. "The Trajectory of Anthropomorphism and Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Serial Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-19, January.
    3. Taehyun Ahn & Kyong Duk Choi, 2019. "Grandparent caregiving and cognitive functioning among older people: evidence from Korea," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 553-586, June.
    4. Lenzen, Sabrina & Gannon, Brenda & Rose, Christiern, 2020. "A dynamic microeconomic analysis of the impact of physical activity on cognition among older people," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    5. Dylan B. Jackson & Kevin M. Beaver, 2015. "The Role of Adolescent Nutrition and Physical Activity in the Prediction of Verbal Intelligence during Early Adulthood: A Genetically Informed Analysis of Twin Pairs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    6. Daugherty, Ana M. & Zwilling, Christopher & Paul, Erick J. & Sherepa, Nikolai & Allen, Courtney & Kramer, Arthur F. & Hillman, Charles H. & Cohen, Neal J. & Barbey, Aron K., 2018. "Multi-modal fitness and cognitive training to enhance fluid intelligence," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 32-43.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2004.055574_8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.