Dementia Risk

Fitness in 40s, 50s Tied to Later Dementia Risk

By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today
Published: February 04, 2013
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Individuals with the highest levels of cardiorespiratory fitness during middle age were significantly less likely to develop dementia in their senior years, a long-term prospective study suggested.

Among nearly 20,000 participants in the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study, those in the highest quintile of cardiorespiratory fitness at roughly age 50 were 36% less likely than those in the lowest quintile (adjusted hazard ratio 0.64, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.77) to be diagnosed with dementia after age 65, according to Laura F. DeFina, MD, of the Cooper Institute in Dallas, and colleagues.

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