Moving Less as You Age May Signal Cognitive Decline, New Study Finds
With age often comes slower movement. Aching joints, fatigue, lower endurance, and chronic health conditions can all make everyday activities feel more tiring than they once did. Because of this, reduced physical activity is often treated as a normal part of aging. But according to a new study, moving less over time may sometimes reflect more than physical aging alone. In some cases, it may also be linked to subtle changes happening in the brain
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Less Movement May Be Tied to Cognitive Decline
We often hear that staying physically active helps preserve brain health with age — and research strongly supports that connection. But most discussions focus on one direction: that exercise helps maintain cognitive function.
A new study suggests the reverse may also be true. Researchers found that older adults whose memory declined more over the years later spent less time moving and more time sedentary, particularly in light everyday activities such as walking around the house, cooking, gardening, doing chores, or running errands.
Compared with people whose memory declined more quickly, those with more favorable memory trajectories averaged about 14 extra minutes of light activity each day — equal to roughly 1.6 more hours per week — and spent about 12 fewer minutes sedentary daily.
Among adults older than 70, the difference was even larger: about 20 extra minutes of light activity per day, or roughly 2.3 more hours per week.
“Our findings suggest that lower levels of physical activity in later life may not simply be a cause of cognitive decline, but can also be a consequence of it. Older adults whose memory declined more rapidly over time were more likely to be less physically active and spend more time in sedentary behavior years later,” Dr. Mikaela Bloomberg, co-author of the study, said in a statement published on the ELSA website.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, followed more than 2,500 adults in England age 50 and older over nearly two decades using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Researchers analyzed cognitive test results collected between 2002 and 2019, including memory tests and verbal fluency, which involved naming as many animals as possible within a set time. Participants were then asked to wear wrist devices called accelerometers for eight days between 2021 and 2023 to measure how much they moved throughout the day.
Researchers grouped participants based on how their cognitive function changed over time and then compared how much time each group later spent in moderate-to-vigorous activity, light activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep.
Our findings suggest that lower levels of physical activity in later life may not simply be a cause of cognitive decline, but can also be a consequence of it.”
Dr. Mikaela Bloomberg, co-author of the study
The Relationship May Go Both Ways
Most people have heard the advice to stay active to keep the mind sharp — and research strongly supports that idea. Regular physical activity has long been linked to better cognitive function and a lower risk of dementia.
But this study highlights something we talk about less often: the possibility that subtle cognitive decline may also make people less active over time. In other words, reduced movement may not always be causing cognitive decline. Sometimes, early changes in brain health may already be affecting a person’s ability or desire to stay active. Physical decline and cognitive decline often go hand in hand.
A 2008 study found that older adults with cognitive impairment tended to have weaker grip strength and more difficulty with everyday physical tasks like walking and standing up from a chair. Interestingly, the link remained even after researchers accounted for muscle mass, suggesting that the decline was not simply due to age-related muscle loss. Instead, the researchers suggested that changes in the brain itself may directly affect physical function.
Why Cognitive Decline Affects Movement
Because the study was observational, researchers cannot say that cognitive decline directly caused people to move less. Still, the findings point to several possible explanations.
As cognitive abilities change, everyday activities may become mentally harder to organize, plan, initiate, or sustain. Early cognitive decline may also overlap with depression, social withdrawal, frailty, or subtle difficulties carrying out routine tasks. The link between cognitive decline and physical function is not entirely new.
Dr. David A. Bennett, director of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center, has similarly noted that cognitive and motor function are closely connected.
“There are a lot of data now showing that loss of cognitive and motor function is due to a lifelong series of events, so the message is: take care of your brain,” he said during a plenary session at the International Congress on Gait & Mental Function.
It’s Often the Small Things
When we think of physical activity, we tend to picture workouts, gym sessions, or sweat-producing exercise. But many older adults rarely engage in vigorous exercise to begin with, which means changes may show up more clearly in the small movements that fill everyday life.
These include ordinary activities such as preparing meals, tidying the house, gardening, shopping, walking around the neighborhood, or simply getting up more often throughout the day.
It’s easy to brush off reduced activity as “just getting older.” But the findings suggest there may sometimes be more to it. Think about how much mental energy everyday tasks can take. Planning a small gathering, running errands, organizing a trip, or even deciding what to cook all require attention, organization, and follow-through. What may look like low motivation could sometimes partly reflect reduced mental processing capacity.
If cognitive resources are gradually declining, staying physically active may naturally become more difficult too.
The findings also reinforce another important point: movement does not have to mean intense exercise. Light activity still counts, and simply spending less time sitting may matter more than many people realize. Research increasingly links prolonged sedentary time in older adults to poorer health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, frailty, and cognitive decline.
In fact, a 2023 study involving nearly 50,000 older adults found that spending more time sedentary was associated with a higher risk of dementia.
Small Changes May Speak Volumes
Reduced physical activity is often treated as a normal part of aging, and often times is. But gradual changes in everyday movement may also reflect broader changes happening in the brain. That does not mean every canceled plan or slower day is a warning sign. But it may be worth paying closer attention to long-term shifts in how often we move, engage with activities, or spend time sitting.
Ultimately, movement may not just support brain health — it may also quietly reflect it.
