Kicking Back Cognitive Ageing: Leg Power Predicts Cognitive Ageing after Ten Years in Older Female Twins

Background: Many observational studies have shown a protective effect of physical activity on cognitive ageing, but interventional studies have been less convincing. This may be due to short time scales of interventions, suboptimal interventional regimes or lack of lasting effect. Confounding through common genetic and developmental causes is also possible. Objectives: We aimed to test whether muscle fitness (measured by leg power) could predict cognitive change in a healthy older population over a 10-year time interval, how this performed alongside other predictors of cognitive ageing, and whether this effect was confounded by factors shared by twins. In addition, we investigated whether differences in leg power were predictive of differences in brain structure and function after 12 years of follow-up in identical twin pairs. Methods: A total of 324 healthy female twins (average age at baseline 55, range 43–73) performed the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) at two time points 10 years apart. Linear regression modelling was used to assess the relationships between Received: February 24, 2015 Accepted: September 11, 2015 Published online: November 10, 2015 Claire J. Steves Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology St Thomas’ Campus, Kings College London, 3rd Floor South Wing Block 7 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7EH (UK) E-Mail claire.j.steves @ kcl.ac.uk © 2015 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel 0304–324X/15/0622–0138$0/0 www.karger.com/ger This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY) (http://www.karger.com/Services/ OpenAccessLicense). Usage, derivative works and distribution are permitted provided that proper credit is given to the author and the original publisher. D w nl oa de d by : 54 .7 0. 40 .1 1 11 /5 /2 01 7 2: 04 :1 7 P M