A daily step count is a simple way to track how much we move. It can also offer clues about our attention and decision-making abilities.
Researchers examined activity records and cognitive test scores of 3,093 U.S. adults over 14 years to explore the link between daily movements and thinking. They also looked at blood pressure.
“Across several cognitive domains, individuals in the most active groups tended to perform better on cognitive measures,” psychiatrist Olaoluwa Okusaga of Baylor College of Medicine told ScienceAlert.
The team used Fitbit recordings and blood pressure measurements from the US National Institutes of Health’s All of Us research program. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 93, with an average age of approximately 58 years.
Many previous studies relied on people reporting their own activity levels, which can be inaccurate. Wearable devices gave researchers an objective measure of daily movements.
The records covered a 14-year window, from 2009 to 2023. Not everyone had data for the entire period, so the researchers estimated each person’s activity pattern from the available measurements.
Starting in September 2023, participants completed a single set of cognitive tests. Four tasks assessed sustained attention, the ability to ignore distracting information, preferences for immediate versus delayed rewards, and facial emotion recognition.
Three groups emerged from the activity records, with an average of 5,108, 8,875 and 14,161 daily steps. The two most active groups performed better than the least active group in attention, distraction control, and reward choice tasks.
For example, after controlling for age, education, income, marital status, and place of birth, sustained attention scores were estimated to be 1.76 points higher in the intermediate activity group and 2.17 points higher in the most active group, compared to the least active group. Cognitive differences were small.
The findings add to research exploring the link between daily steps and health. Here, the associations extend to skills with possible applications in daily life.
“For example, staying focused at work, avoiding impulsive decisions, and adhering to long-term goals like saving money or following a health plan,” Okusaga explained.
Blood pressure showed a stronger association. Higher systolic pressure, the highest number in a reading, was linked to slightly worse performance on the reward choice task. After adjusting for other factors, diastolic pressure, the lowest number, was not significantly associated with any of the four tests.
In a follow-up analysis, lower systolic pressure could statistically explain approximately 5% of the association between step counts and reward choice scores. This estimate does not establish that lowering blood pressure improves cognition.
Researchers suggested that improved glucose metabolism, reduced inflammation and the brain’s ability to adapt could help explain the link between activity and cognition. These mechanisms were not tested in this study.
Facial emotion recognition did not differ significantly between activity groups, and changes in activity over time were not significantly associated with cognitive performance.
Step counts also don’t establish a daily goal for better attention.
“Our study was observational and was not designed to determine an optimal number of daily steps for cognitive health,” Okusaga said.
Because cognition was only measured once, the researchers could not determine whether the participants’ thinking skills had improved or decreased. People’s existing cognitive abilities could also influence their level of activity. Daily behaviors, such as concentration at work or financial decisions, were not directly assessed.
The analysis could not take into account smoking or obesity. The sample was largely white, about two-thirds were women, and almost all had at least some college education, limiting the extent to which the results can be applied.
“Our results support an association between long-term physical activity and later cognitive performance, but they do not prove that physical activity leads to better cognition,” Okusaga said.
Repeated cognitive assessments in future All of Us data could help researchers determine whether staying active is associated with changes in attention and other thinking skills over time.
The research was published in Scientific reports.
This article was fact-checked by Fiona MacDonald and edited by Fiona MacDonald. Although we are proud of our process, we are only human. If you spot an error, please let us know.
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