Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 9, 2025
04:13
Using a Real-Time Locating System to Measure Walking Activity Associated with Wandering Behaviors Among Institutionalized Older Adults
Published on: February 8, 2019
6.9K
Bidirectional associations between cognitive functions and walking performance among middle-aged women
Anna Tirkkonen1, Tiia Kekäläinen1, Pauliina Aukee2
1Gerontology Research Center and Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Menopause (New York, N.Y.)
|December 21, 2021
Summary
Cognitive functions generally improved or stayed the same after menopause. While cognitive abilities and walking were linked in late perimenopause, this connection did not persist postmenopause.
Area of Science:
- Reproductive Endocrinology
- Neuroscience
- Gerontology
Background:
- Menopause significantly impacts women's health, with potential effects on cognitive function.
- Understanding changes in cognitive performance and physical activity during this transition is crucial for midlife women's health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cognitive function changes from perimenopause to postmenopause.
- To examine associations between cognitive functions and walking in middle-aged women.
- To determine if cognitive function predicts walking ability, or vice versa, across menopausal stages.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study of 342 women transitioning from perimenopause to postmenopause.
- Assessed cognitive functions including psychomotor speed, executive functions (set-shifting, updating), working memory, and visual memory.
- Measured walking performance via speed, distance, and dual-task cost, analyzed with regression and structural equation modeling.
Main Results:
- Cognitive functions like psychomotor speed, working memory, set-shifting, and visual memory showed small but significant improvements postmenopause.
- In late perimenopause, walking speed and dual-task cost correlated with updating, and walking distance with updating and set-shifting.
- No longitudinal associations were found between cognitive functions and walking postmenopause.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive performance is maintained or enhanced after transitioning to postmenopause.
- Associations between cognitive functions and walking exist during late perimenopause but are specific to cognitive processes and walking tasks.
- These relationships do not persist longitudinally into postmenopause.
