TORONTO, June 30 (UPI) -- Women physically active at any age have lower risk of elderly cognitive impairment, but teen exercise appears most important, Canadian researchers found.
Laura Middleton of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto compared the physical activity of teens, age 30, age 50, and late in life against cognition of 9,344 women from Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon and Pennsylvania.
Of the participants, 15.5 percent reported being physically active as a teen, 29.7 percent at age 30, 28.1 percent at age 50 and 21.1 percent late in life, the study found.
"Our study shows that women who are regularly physically active at any age have lower risk of cognitive impairment than those who are inactive but that being physically active at teenage is most important in preventing cognitive impairment," Middleton said in a statement.
However, the study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found women who were physically inactive at teenagers but physically active at age 30 and age 50 significantly reduced odds of cognitive impairment relative to those who remained physically inactive.
