- People with a consistently high level of occupational physical activity are more likely to develop dementia or mild cognitive impairment, says a new study.
- The authors of the study call for the development of cognitively protective strategies for people in such jobs.
- People in jobs with an intermediate amount of physical activity are at greater risk of mild cognitive impairment. This can often lead to dementia.
If your job involves a high level of physical activity, you may be at an increased risk of dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), suggests a new study, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.
People with a high level of occupational physical activity have a 15.5% risk of dementia, compared to the 9% risk for people whose work involves a low level of physical activity, says the study.
The study also found that people whose work requires an intermediate level of occupational physical activity are at higher risk of mild cognitive impairment, but not dementia, per se.
The study is an analysis of data from the fourth, 2017–2019 wave, of the HUNT4 70+ Study, one of the largest collections of dementia data. It included 7,005 people living in the county of Trøndelag in Sweden, aged 33–65. Of the study participants, 49.8% were women.
The authors define occupational physical activity as ”[p]erforming physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling of materials.”
They rated occupational physical activity on a scale of one to five, with one representing the least amount of such activity, and five the most.
Some of the most common occupations among study participants with exposure to intensive physical activity in their roles were retail, nursing and care, and farming.
The study’s corresponding author, Dr. Vegard Skirbekk, explained to Medical News Today that the purpose of the study was to better understand the risks for…
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