Exercise Types and the Risk of Developing Cognitive Decline in Older Women: A Prospective Study

Participation in exercise may be useful for dementia prevention; however, the specific exercise types which may best to reduce the risk of developing cognitive decline have remained unidentified in the literature.

To examine the relationships of specific exercise types with the risk of developing cognitive decline in older women.

This 1- to 2-year population-based cohort study included 687 community-dwelling older Japanese women without disability, neurological disease, dementia, or cognitive impairment assessed as <24 points on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) at the baseline survey. Developing cognitive decline was defined as a decrease of ≥3 points in the participant's MMSE score during the follow-up. We classified individuals into participation (≥3 months) and non-participation (<3 months) groups for 17 different exercise types. Log-binominal regression analyses were applied to compare risk ratios and confidence intervals of developing cognitive decline between the two groups.

Thirty-nine participants (5.7%) developed cognitive decline during the follow-up period. After adjusting for confounders (age, MMSE score, depressive symptoms, body mass index, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, low educational level, and the follow-up period in the baseline survey), those who participated in calisthenics demonstrated a significantly lower risk of developing cognitive decline than those who did not participate in calisthenics. No significant relationships between other exercise types and the risk of developing cognitive decline were found.

Participation in calisthenics significantly reduced the risk of cognitive decline in community-dwelling older Japanese women, indicating that calisthenics may be a useful type of exercise for promoting dementia prevention.