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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Aging and Public Health

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1562747

This article is part of the Research Topic Integrated Strategies for Lifelong Health: Multidimensional Approaches to Aging and Lifestyle Interventions View all 9 articles

The Impact of Physical Activities on Cognitive function among elder populations:Evidence from China

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Tianjin University of Sport, Tianjin, China
  • 2 department of physical education, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
  • 3 School of Physical Education and Equestrian, Wuhan Business University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: This study investigates the impact of physical activity on cognitive function in Chinese middle-aged and elderly individuals, examining the relationship between different intensities of physical activity and cognitive function, as well as the effect of physical activity on various types of cognitive function. Method: A total of 27,529 samples were selected from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) data from 2011 to 2018 for regression analysis. Multidimensional fixed effects estimation was used to validate the impact of physical activity on cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults, analyzing differences in the intensity of physical activity and types of cognitive function. The empirical results were further tested using methods such as propensity score matching (PSM). Additionally, this paper conducted heterogeneity analyses by gender, place of residence, presence of children, and marital status. Results: Physical activity had a positive impact on cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults in China by improving their cardiovascular health, and this result held true regardless of gender, rural or urban residence, presence of children, or marital status. This conclusion was supported by both alternative explanatory variables and results from propensity score matching. Further research found that physical activity improves immediate memory and delayed recall among middle-aged and older adults. Moderate physical activity enhances the health of the elderly population, whereas excessive physical activity may impair cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults. Conclusions: Our study found that PA can effectively promote the improvement of cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults, with this conclusion still holding true in older populations. Such physical activity should be moderate, because vigorous physical activity may impair cognitive function in middle-aged and older people. The study conclusions play a significant role in promoting physical activity, delaying cognitive decline, achieving active aging, and reducing the burden of informal caregiving.

    Keywords: physical activity, middle-aged and older adult, Cognition, Charles, Fixed effects regression

    Received: 18 Jan 2025; Accepted: 19 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Yang and Liu. 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: ZhiYun Liu, Tianjin University of Sport, Tianjin, China

    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.

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