O2‐02‐06: Depressive symptoms predict cognitive impairment in nondisabled elderly with white matter changes: The LADIS study

Background: Prior studies have found that older adults who are physically active experience slower rates of cognitive decline. Less is known about the impact of changes in physical activity levels on rate of cognitive decline. Methods: Subjects were participants in the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study, a prospective study of 3,075 non-demented, white and black elders (age 70-79 years) recruited from two U.S. communities. Physical activity was assessed based on self-reported number of minutes walked per week (min/wk) at baseline and after 2, 4 and 7 years of follow-up and classified at each time point as sedentary (0 min/wk), low (<150 min/wk) or high ( 150 min/wk, based on the U.S. Surgeon General’s recommended guidelines). Changes over time were classified as being consistently sedentary, maintaining (either low or high), decreasing, or increasing/fluctuating. Cognitive function was assessed at the same time points using the Modified Mini-Mental State (3MS) Examination, a global measure of cognition with a maximum score of 100. Repeated measures random effects regression was used to estimate differences between physical activity groups in baseline 3MS scores and rate of decline. Results: Twenty-one percent of subjects were consistently sedentary while 12% maintained their activity levels, 26% had declining levels and 41% had increasing or fluctuating levels. After adjustment for age, sex, race, education, study site, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, alcohol consumption and baseline 3MS score, the mean rate of decline in 3MS scores was -0.62 points/year in those who were consistently sedentary compared to -0.54 points/year (p1⁄40.30) in those with declining activity levels, -0.44 points/ year (p1⁄40.01) in those with increasing/fluctuating activity levels and -0.40 points/year (p1⁄40.04) in those who maintained their activity levels (Figure). Conclusions: Non-demented elders who maintained or increased their activity levels at some point during follow-up experienced significantly slower rates of cognitive decline than those who were consistently sedentary or whose activity levels declined. These findings suggest that older adults may be able to minimize their rate of cognitive decline by maintaining or increasing their physical activity levels. This research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute on Aging and by NIA contract #s: N01-AG-6-2101, N01-AG-2103, N01-AG-6-2106. O2-02-06 DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS PREDICT COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN NONDISABLED ELDERLY WITH WHITE MATTER CHANGES: THE LADIS STUDY Ana Verdelho, Sofia Madureira, Carla Moleiro, Jose M. Ferro, John O’Brien, Timo Erkinjuntti, Leonardo Pantoni, Franz Fazekas, Philip Scheltens, Gunhild Waldemar, Anders Wallin, Domenico Inzitari for the LADIS Study, Department of Neurociences. University of Lisbon. Santa Maria Hospital, Lisbon, Portugal; Lisbon University Institute ISCTE, Psychology Department, Lisbon, Portugal; Institute for Ageing and Health, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom; Memory Research Unit, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Helsinki University, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Neurological and Psychiatric Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy; Department of Neurology and MRI Institute, Karl Franzens University Graz, Graz, Austria; Department of Neurology, VU Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Memory Disorders Research Unit, Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark; Institute of Clinical Neuroscience, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden. Contact e-mail: averdelho@fm.ul.pt