We agree that many prior publications have stressed the importance of physical activity and healthy aging and that a longer observational period would improve our understanding of the interrelationship of physical activity, cognition, and age.
While our study included several sensitivity analyses to control for individuals who may have had mild cognitive impairment, we agree that an optimal study would include only individuals without any cognitive impairment with repeated objective measures of total daily physical activity. The current study incorporated several novel features including actigraphy, which provided objective measures of physical activity circumventing recall bias that may affect self-reported measures. Since activity was recorded 24hrs a day, we were able to determine total daily physical activity including all exercise and non-exercise physical activity.
Our findings that total daily physical activity is associated with cognition is particularly important for very old adults, since it suggests that the cognitive benefits which accrue from physical activity may not be limited to exercise. Thus, even older adults who cannot participate in formal exercise may nonetheless derive benefit from a more active lifestyle. Finally, controlling for total daily non-exercise activity may be important for interpreting results of exercise intervention studies and cognition in old age.
For disclosures, contact the editorial office at journal@neurology.org.
We agree that many prior publications have stressed the importance of physical activity and healthy aging and that a longer observational period would improve our understanding of the interrelationship of physical activity, cognition, and age.
While our study included several sensitivity analyses to control for individuals who may have had mild cognitive impairment, we agree that an optimal study would include only individuals without any cognitive impairment with repeated objective measures of total daily physical activity. The current study incorporated several novel features including actigraphy, which provided objective measures of physical activity circumventing recall bias that may affect self-reported measures. Since activity was recorded 24hrs a day, we were able to determine total daily physical activity including all exercise and non-exercise physical activity.
Our findings that total daily physical activity is associated with cognition is particularly important for very old adults, since it suggests that the cognitive benefits which accrue from physical activity may not be limited to exercise. Thus, even older adults who cannot participate in formal exercise may nonetheless derive benefit from a more active lifestyle. Finally, controlling for total daily non-exercise activity may be important for interpreting results of exercise intervention studies and cognition in old age.
For disclosures, contact the editorial office at journal@neurology.org.