Study characteristics
| Publication and study design | Participants, country, setting and length of follow-up | Sedentary behaviour (exposure assessment) | Cognitive function (outcome assessment) | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cohort designs | ||||
| Hamer and Stamatakis23 Cohort design | 6359 men and women from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing England 2-year follow-up | Self-reported TV viewing considered sedentary behaviour (SB) | Immediate word recall, delayed word recall and verbal fluency.31 All three used to create a global cognitive function score (primary outcome) | Linear inverse relationship between TV time and cognitive function. Decreased cognition from baseline (EMM=0.39, 95% CI [0.33 to 0.45)) to follow-up (EMM=0.25, 95% CI (0.19 to 0.31)), but no association between baseline SB and changes in cognitive function |
| Kesse-Guyot et al24 Cohort design | 2430 participants from the Supplémentation en Vitamines et Minéraux Antioxydants Study France 13-year follow-up | Self-administered French version of the Modifiable Activity Questionnaire (MAQ).32 Participants reported average time spent at home watching TV (min/day) | Digit span forward and backward (primary outcome),33 Delis-Kaplan Trail Making Test,34 RI-48 cued recall test,35 semantic fluency and phonemic fluency36 | SB associated with decreased global cognitive function (β= −1.28; 95% CI (−2.46 to −0.11)) and decreased verbal memory (β= −1.38; 95% CI (−2.58 to −0.18)) over time |
| Kesse-Guyot et al25 Cohort design | 2579 participants who agreed to participate in the follow-up period of the Supplémentation en Vitamines et Minéraux Antioxydants Study France 8-year follow-up | Self-administered French Modifiable Activity Questionnaire (MAQ).32 Participants asked about average daily time spent with SB (min/day) | Phonemic and semantic fluency (primary outcome),36 RI-48 test,35 digit span forward and backward,33 Delis-Kaplan Trail Making Test34 | Negative association observed between TV viewing and executive function cross-sectionally (β=−0.98; 95% CI (−1.93 to −0.04)), no association between executive function and SB over time |
| Case-control designs | ||||
| Kivipelto et al26 Nested case-control design | 1449 participants from the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia Study (65–79 years) Finland Mean follow-up time of 21 years | Self-reported leisure-time physical activity (PA) dichotomised into categories: active and sedentary (persons who participated in leisure-time PA less than two times per week) | Cognitive status determined via scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE),37 and all-cause dementia diagnosis (primary outcome) confirmed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders38 | The odds of developing all-cause dementia were 2.07 times greater for participants who were sedentary (95% CI 1.12 to 3.86) as compared to physically active when controlling for age, sex, follow-up time, education, body mass index (BMI), cholesterol, blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and diabetes |
| Lindstrom et al27 Case-control design | Participants born between 1915 and 1944. 135 cases of Alzheimer's disease 331 controls recruited from clinical settings and from the community. USA | Participants self-reported daily hours of television viewing | Diagnosed case of Alzheimer's disease (primary outcome) | Cases watched significantly more television than controls (F (1, 464)=35.37). The odds of developing Alzheimer's disease increased 1.32 times for every hour of daily television viewing (95% CI 1.08 to 1.62) |
| Cross-sectional designs | ||||
| Rosenberg et al28 Cross-sectional design | 307 older adults (67–100 years) from 11 retirement communities USA | Self-reported SB assessed using a modified version of the Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire.39 Objective sedentary time measured using ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometer40 | Trail Making Test41 | Self-reported sedentary time was associated with improved performance on Trails A (β= −0.01±0.01) but was not associated with improved executive performance. Objectively measured sedentary time was not associated with Trail Making Test performance |
| Steinberg et al29 Cross-sectional design | 125 healthy adults 65 or older with no clinical evidence of cognitive impairment USA | Hours spent in SB according to the Community Health Activities Model Program for Seniors (CHAMPS) questionnaire42 | CogState computerised battery measured multiple domains of cognition including: psychomotor speed, visual attention, visual recognition and memory (primary outcome)43 | Lower scores on executive function measures associated with increased SB (β=0.006±0.003; R2=0.2323). Memory scores and processing speed were not associated with increased SB. |
| Vance et al30 Cross-sectional design | 158 participants with a mean age of 75.05 years were recruited from the Accelerate study USA | The total amount of time spent sitting, sleeping or lying down was used as an indicator of SB44 | Benton Visual Retention Test,45 Trail Making Test41 and the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Copy and Recall Tests.46 A composite score for cognitive function was then created (primary outcome) | Structural equation modelling predicted SB was associated with increased cognitive function (β=0.34) |