Differential effects of chronotype on physical activity and cognitive performance in older adults

Hicks, Hilary; Meyer, Kayla; Watts, Amber · 2023 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3389/fepid.2023.1029221

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Summary

This study investigates the relationship between chronotype, physical activity, and cognitive performance in older adults, addressing a gap in literature that has predominantly focused on younger populations. The research aims to determine whether chronotype influences health outcomes through sleep timing or sleep disruption, specifically examining how these factors interact in older adults with and without self-reported sleep disorders. The study utilized data from 153 older adults (mean age 70.35 years) recruited from the University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Clinical Cohort. Participants wore GT9X Link accelerometers on their non-dominant wrists for seven days to objectively measure total physical activity, peak activity, and chronotype, defined as the midpoint of the sleep interval. Participants were categorized into morning, evening, or intermediate chronotypes. Cognitive performance was assessed using a neuropsychological battery covering attention, executive function, and verbal memory. Statistical analyses employed MANCOVAs, with covariates including age, sex, education, BMI, and the discrepancy between chronotype and testing time. The analysis was conducted twice: once including all participants and once excluding those with self-reported sleep disorders or use of pharmacologic sleep aids. Results indicated that activity patterns across the 24-hour day differed significantly by chronotype, with morning-types active earlier and evening-types active later. However, total physical activity and average peak activity levels did not differ between chronotype groups. Evening-types exhibited significantly worse performance in executive function and attention compared to intermediate-types. Crucially, when participants with sleep disorders were excluded, evening-types engaged in significantly less total physical activity than other groups, but the differences in cognitive performance disappeared. This suggests that the observed cognitive deficits in evening-types are driven by sleep dysregulation rather than chronotype itself. The findings imply that the role of chronotype on physical activity may change with age, contrasting with studies in younger samples that often find lower activity in evening-types. The study highlights that sleep disruption, rather than sleep timing, likely accounts for the association between evening chronotype and poorer cognitive outcomes in older adults. These results suggest that researchers should consider chronotype and activity timing when designing interventions for older adults, while acknowledging that sleep quality is a critical confounding variable. The use of objective actigraphy for both chronotype and activity measurement provides a more reliable assessment than self-report methods, offering a novel approach for future research in aging and epidemiology.

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• circadian factors