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Updated: Aug 7, 2025
Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
A Wrinkle in Measuring Time Use for Cognitive Health: How should We Measure Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour
Ryan S Falck1, Jennifer C Davis1, Karim M Khan1
1Aging, Mobility and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada(RSF, TLA); Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada(RSF, TLA); Center for Hip Health and Mobility, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada(RSF, KMK, TLA); Faculty of Management, University of British Columbia-Okanagan, Kelowna, BC, Canada(JCD); Department of Family Practice, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada(KMK); Attentional Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada(TCH).
Abstract:
One new case of dementia is detected every 4 seconds and no effective drug therapy exists. Effective behavioural strategies to promote healthy cognitive ageing are thus essential. Three behaviours related to cognitive health which we all engage in daily are physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep. These time-use activity behaviours are linked to cognitive health in a complex and dynamic relationship not yet fully elucidated. Understanding how each of these behaviours is related to each other and cognitive health will help determine the most practical and effective lifestyle strategies for promoting healthy cognitive ageing. In this review, we discuss methods and analytical approaches to best investigate how these time-use activity behaviours are related to cognitive health. We highlight four key recommendations for examining these relationships such that researchers should include measures which (1) are psychometrically appropriate; (2) can specifically answer the research question; (3) include objective and subjective estimates of the behaviour and (4) choose an analytical method for modelling the relationships of time-use activity behaviours with cognitive health which is appropriate for their research question.
