Hamer M, et al. - This study was designed to scrutinize the association of physical activity with trajectories in cognitive function, measured from repeated assessments over 10 years. Results of over 10 years follow-up revealed that physical activity was associated with preservation of memory and executive function, however, this was more pronounced in women.

• Researchers performed a 10-year follow-up of 10,652 (aged 65±10.1 years) men and women from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a cohort of community dwelling older adults.
• Baseline assessment of self-reported physical activity was carried out.
• Also, neuropsychological tests of memory and executive function were administered at regular 2-year intervals.
• They used data from six repeated measurements of memory over 10 years and five repeated measurements of executive function over 8 years.

• Findings showed that in both men and women, the multivariable models revealed relatively small baseline differences in cognitive function by physical activity status.
• Over the 10-year follow-up, it was found that in comparison with the vigorously active reference group, physically inactive women experienced a greater decline in their memory (-0.20 recalled words, 95% CI -0.29 to -0.11, per study wave) and in executive function ability (-0.33 named animals; -0.54 to -0.13, per study wave).
• Researchers also noted that in men, there were no differences in memory (-0.08 recalled words, 95% CI -0.18 to 0.01, per study wave), but small differences in executive function (-0.23 named animals; -0.46 to -0.01, per study wave) between inactive and vigorously active.