BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1589606
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrated Strategies for Lifelong Health: Multidimensional Approaches to Aging and Lifestyle InterventionsView all 21 articles
Associations Between Sleep Duration, Physical Activity, and Cognitive Impairment in Older Adults-Empirical Analysis Based on CHARLS Data
Provisionally accepted
- 1Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan, China
- 2Yuncheng University, Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, China
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Objective: To systematically analyze the independent and combined effects of abnormal sleep duration and insufficient physical activity on the risk of cognitive impairment, to provide a robust scientific foundation for the development of multidimensional cognitive health intervention strategies. Methods: A total of 5,184 older adults were selected for analysis from the 2020 CHARLS data. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) were utilized to assess cognitive function and physical activity levels, respectively. Multifactorial logistic regression models were employed to analyze the independent and joint effects of sleep duration and physical activity on cognitive impairment, as well as to investigate the moderating role of physical activity.Results: Both short sleep duration (less than 6 hours per night, OR=1.274, 95%CI: 1.099~1.477) and long sleep duration (more than 8 hours per night, OR=1.228, 95%CI: 1.044~1.445) significantly increased the risk of cognitive impairment. Additionally, low-physical activity levels (less than 600 MET-min/week, OR=1.436, 95%CI: 1.091~1.890) were also associated with a heightened risk of cognitive impairment. The interaction between sleep duration and physical activity was significant; specifically, short sleep combined with low-physical activity (OR=2.196, 95% CI: 1.385~3.484) and long sleep with low-physical activity (OR=1.273, 95%CI: 1.078~1.503) significantly elevated the risk of cognitive impairment. The prevalence of cognitive impairment was significantly different (P<0.01) between the group with suitable sleep and moderate-high physical activity (24.01%) and the other combination groups.The results of this study support the hypothesis that sleep duration and physical activity levels may collaboratively enhance cognitive health through various physiological mechanisms.
Keywords: elderly population, sleep duration, physical activity, cognitive impairment, joint effects
Received: 07 Mar 2025; Accepted: 15 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dong, Ma, Lan and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Fengwei Dong, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan, China
Li-Xu Tang, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan, China
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