It is Never Too Late to Make Better Lifestyle Choices
Studies tend to show that even a late life adjustment of lifestyle can meaningfully improve health and reduce mortality risk. It is never too late to gain some benefit from a better diet, more physical activity, greater physical fitness, and loss of excess visceral fat tissue. As an illustration of this point, researchers here show that older people who improve their lifestyle choices exhibit a sizable reduction in the risk of cognitive impairment versus those who retain a poor set of lifestyle choices.
This study included 6,765 older adults from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Data on lifestyle, including dietary habits, sleep quality, physical, cognitive, and social activity were self-reported from 2008 to 2014. Cognitive function was measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination from 2014 to 2018. Over a mean follow-up period of 5.9 years, 1,659 participants (24.5%) developed cognitive impairment. Three distinct lifestyle behavior trajectory classes were identified: "Low-Declining" (n = 4,342, 64.2%), "Moderate-Improving" (n = 1,777, 26.3%), and "High-Declining" (n = 646, 9.5%).
Compared with the Low-Declining group, the Moderate-Improving group was associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment (hazard ratio, HR = 0.368), a longer time to cognitive impairment onset (mean = 6.433 years) and a slower rate of annual cognitive decline (0.806 points per year). Similarly, the High-Declining group showed a reduced risk (HR = 0.629, delayed onset (mean = 4.969 years) and a slower decline rate (0.543 points per year) compared with the Low-Declining group. Thus an upward trajectory of moderate lifestyle engagement, as well as a high but declining class, was associated with better cognitive outcomes compared with persistently low or declining engagement.