NEW YORK — A study published in the medical journal Neurology indicates that older adults over the age of 80 who walk faster than their peers are about 50% less likely to develop cognitive decline. Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine analyzed data from nearly 4,000 older adults who were enrolled in a long-term aging study.

The study defined "super movers" as individuals over 80 years old whose gait speed was at least 1.5 standard deviations above the average for their age group. The fastest 9% of participants in the study met the criteria to be considered super movers. Sofiya Milman, a study author, stated, "A super mover is someone who is older than age 80 and performing much better than their peers." Milman also said, "The biggest takeaway was that super movers are about 50% less likely to develop cognitive decline than their peers who are not super movers, which is very impressive."

The research also found that these super movers tended to maintain their hippocampal volume as they aged. The hippocampus is a brain region associated with memory. Some super movers in the study displayed brain plaques and tangles, typically linked to Alzheimer's disease and dementia, yet they did not exhibit symptoms of these conditions.

Why It Matters

This study suggests an association between faster walking speed in older adults and a reduced risk of cognitive decline. The findings indicate that maintaining physical attributes like gait speed may correlate with brain health, specifically the preservation of hippocampal volume, even in the presence of biological markers for neurological conditions like Alzheimer's. The identification of factors like fast walking that correlate with a lower incidence of cognitive decline among individuals over 80 could inform further research into maintaining cognitive function in aging populations.