ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1351658
This article is part of the Research TopicCognitive Impairment and Physical Function in Older AdultsView all 38 articles
The examination of Physical function index and cognitive outcomes in middle-to-older high-risk adults: An unsupervised clustering method
Provisionally accepted
Joshua Louis Gills1*
Megan D Jones2
Anthony Campitelli2
Sally Paulson3Cody Diehl4Charles Rodgers2Erica Madero5
Jennifer R. Myers5
Kelsey N Bryk5
Omonigho Michael Bubu6Jordan M. Glenn5
Michelle Gray2*- 1Department of Psychiatry, Department of Population Health, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, New York, United States
- 2University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States
- 3St. Elizabeth Medical Center, Edgewood, Kentucky, United States
- 4Other, Tulsa, OK, United States
- 5Neurotrack Technologies, Inc., Redwood City, California, United States
- 6Department of Psychiatry; Department of Neurology; Department of Population Health, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, New York, United States
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Alzheimer's disease rates are expected to triple by 2050. Early detection and specific mitigation efforts are warranted to blunt the alarming increase. Physical function index (PFI) declines with age; additionally, higher PFI is associated with better cognitive functioning in middle-to-older age individuals. However, most studies utilize one domain of PFI to examine associations with cognition. Therefore, using clustering methods, the purpose of this investigation was to determine if high-risk individuals with higher PFI have better cognitive outcomes compared to individuals with lower PFI. Participants (n=215; 73.1% female; 45-75years) completed a body mass scan, venous blood draw, 7 PFI tasks, and 7 cognitive tests. A k-means cluster analysis was utilized to identify PFI cluster for participants, one-way ANCOVAs were used to assess differences in cognition among clusters. Cluster 1 (C1; n=29) was characterized as the highest strength/power, faster dual-task walking time, and higher aerobic capacity, Cluster 3 (C3; n=113) had the lowest values between PFI groups, Cluster 2 (C3; n=74) was in-between C1 and C3. Individuals in C1 had significantly higher global cognitive, visuospatial scores, digital executive functioning and associative learning compared to individuals in C3 (p<0.05). Individuals in C1 and C2 had significantly higher values on orientation task and figure recall than individuals in C3 (p<0.05). The results from this current study demonstrate that individuals with higher combined PFI output have higher global cognitive scores than individuals with lower combined PFI output. Examining PFI variables together may be a valuable tool when assessing cognition among cognitively at-risk individuals.
Keywords: Exercise, Cognition, cardiovascular, Muscles, Aging
Received: 06 Dec 2023; Accepted: 07 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gills, Jones, Campitelli, Paulson, Diehl, Rodgers, Madero, Myers, Bryk, Bubu, Glenn and Gray. 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:
Joshua Louis Gills, Department of Psychiatry, Department of Population Health, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, 10016, New York, United States
Michelle Gray, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 72701, North Carolina, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
