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Cognitive functions and physical activity in aging when energy is lacking

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Abstract

Declines in subjective energy availability and cognitive functions could explain the decrease in physical activity observed across aging. However, how these factors interact remains unknown. Based on the theory of effort minimization in physical activity (TEMPA), we hypothesized that cognitive functions may help older adults to maintain physical activity even when energy availability is perceived as insufficient. This study used data of 104,590 adults from 21 European countries, from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), including 7 measurement occasions between 2004 and 2017. Cognitive functions were assessed with verbal fluency and delayed recall, using the verbal fluency test and the 10-word delayed recall test. Physical activity and subjective energy availability were self-reported. Results of linear mixed-effects models revealed that cognitive functions moderated the associations between subjective energy availability and physical activity. Moreover, as adults get older, cognitive functions became critical to engage in physical activity regardless the availability of perceived energy. Sensitivity and robustness analyses were consistent with the main results. These results suggest that cognitive functions may help older adults to maintain regular physical activity even when energy for goal pursuit becomes insufficient, but that the protective role of cognitive functions becomes critical at older age, irrespective of the state of perceived energy.

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Availability of data and material

This paper uses data from SHARE Waves 1, 2, 3 (SHARELIFE), 4, 5 and 6 (DOIs: https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w1.600, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w2.600, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w3.600, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w4.600, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w5.600, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w6.600).

Code availability

R code will be available upon request from the first author.

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Funding

This work was supported by an Ambizione grant (PZ00P1_180040) from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) provided to the first author of the manuscript. M. P. B is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2021–03153) and by a grant from The Banting Research Foundation. The SHARE data collection was primarily funded by the European Commission through FP5 (QLK6-CT-2001-00360), FP6 (SHARE-I3: RII-CT-2006-062193, COMPARE: CIT5-CT-2005-028857, SHARELIFE: CIT4-CT-2006-028812) and FP7 (SHARE-PREP: no.211909, SHARE-LEAP: no.227822, SHARE M4: no.261982). Additional funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, the U.S. National Institute on Aging (U01_AG09740-13S2, P01_AG005842, P01_AG08291, P30_AG12815, R21_AG025169, Y1-AG-4553-01, IAG_BSR06-11, OGHA_04-064, HHSN271201300071C) and from various national funding sources is gratefully acknowledged (see http://www.share-project.org).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Boris Cheval & David Sander

  2. Laboratory for the Study of Emotion Elicitation and Expression (E3Lab), Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Boris Cheval & David Sander

  3. School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

    Matthieu P. Boisgontier

  4. Bruyère Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

    Matthieu P. Boisgontier

  5. LIVES Centre, Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Stefan Sieber

  6. Swiss NCCR “LIVES - Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives”, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Andreas Ihle & Dan Orsholits

  7. Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Andreas Ihle

  8. Cognitive Aging Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Andreas Ihle

  9. Laboratoire Motricité, Interactions, Performance, MIP - EA4334, Le Mans Université, Le Mans, France

    Cyril Forestier

  10. Univ. Grenoble Alpes, SENS Laboratory, Grenoble, France

    Aïna Chalabaev

Authors
  1. Boris Cheval
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  2. Matthieu P. Boisgontier
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  3. Stefan Sieber
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  4. Andreas Ihle
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  5. Dan Orsholits
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  6. Cyril Forestier
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  7. David Sander
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  8. Aïna Chalabaev
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Contributions

B.C. and A.C. designed the analyses. B.C. analyzed the data. B.C., M.P.B. and A.C. drafted the manuscript. All authors critically appraised and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Boris Cheval or Aïna Chalabaev.

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Cheval, B., Boisgontier, M.P., Sieber, S. et al. Cognitive functions and physical activity in aging when energy is lacking. Eur J Ageing 19, 533–544 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-021-00654-2

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