Physical function domain associations with cognitive domains in community-dwelling older adults

Physical and cognitive aging do not occur uniformly, yet associations between specific physical function and cognitive domains in sedentary older adults remain unclear. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined associations between multiple physical function domains and cognitive outcomes in sedentary, community-dwelling, cognitively unimpaired older adults.

Fifty-eight older adults (70.7±4.7 years; 84.5% Female) completed handgrip strength, 30-second chair stand, timed up and go (TUG), brisk walk, and 6-minute walk (6MWT) assessment. Cognitive outcomes included global cognition using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and working memory, episodic memory, attentional inhibition, and cognitive flexibility using the NIH Toolbox. Linear regression models adjusted for age, sex, education, body mass index, and brachial pulse pressure. False discovery rate (FDR) correction was applied.

Greater 6MWT distance was associated with better episodic memory performance after FDR correction (β=0.49, p _a =0.028). Additional inverse associations were observed between TUG performance and global cognition (β=-0.34, p _a =0.166) and attentional inhibition (β=-0.32, p _a =0.180), and between gait speed and global cognition (β=-0.33, p _a =0.166) and episodic memory performance (β=-0.32, p _a =0.166), however, these did not survive FDR correction. Handgrip strength and chair stand performance were not associated with cognitive outcomes.

These exploratory findings suggest that locomotor-based functional tasks may demonstrate stronger cognitive associations than strength measures in sedentary, cognitively unimpaired older adults. Tasks involving sustained locomotion and adaptive movement may place greater cognitive-motor demands, potentially increasing sensitivity to subtle cognitive variation. Larger longitudinal and multimodal studies are needed to determine whether these associations reflect reliable differential patterns across physical and cognitive domains.