Physical activity and blood pressure as predictors of cognitive function in the all of us research program

Physical activity (PA) is positively associated with cognition, whereas elevated blood pressure shows a negative association. However, most studies relied on subjective, self-reported measures of PA. In this study, we examined associations of PA (daily step count from Fitbit wearable devices), systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure spanning 14 years, with end-of-study cognitive performance in 3,093 participants in the All of Us Research Program (AoU).

Cognition was assessed by the Gradual Onset Continuous Performance Task (Grad-CPT), Delay Discounting Task (DD-Task), Multiracial Emotional Recognition Task (Emorecog-Task) and Flanker-Task. Baseline PA metrics were positively associated with Grad-CPT (β = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.18 to 0.44), DD-Task (β = 0.05, 95% CI: 0.04 to 0.07), and Flanker-Task (β = 0.26, 95% CI: 0.17 to 0.35). Baseline SBP was negatively associated with DD-Task (β = -0.01, 95% CI: -0.02 to -0.004).

Longitudinal k-means clustering identified 3 clusters of individuals—A, B and C— with mean daily steps of 5108, 8875 and 14,161 respectively. Individuals in clusters B and C had higher scores than those in cluster A on the DD-Task, Grad-CPT and Flanker-Task. These findings underscore the potential role of PA promotion and optimal blood pressure management in supporting cognitive health.

We gratefully acknowledge All of Us participants for their contributions, without whom this research would not have been possible. We also thank the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program for making available the participant data examined in this study. Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, 1977 Butler Boulevard, Houston, TX, 77030, USA Michael E.

DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Centre, Mental Health Care Line, Houston, TX, USA Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA The authors declare no competing interests. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

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