Association between self-reported physical activity levels and patient reported cognitive problems in Parkinson's disease.
12 affiliations
- 1Department of Neurology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
- 2Department of Neurology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA.
- 3Edmond J Safra Program in Parkinson's disease, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
- 4Grey Matter Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Modality.AI, San Francisco, CA, USA.
- 5Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
- 6Department of Neurology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
- 7Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
- 8Department of Neurology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
- 9Parkinson's Foundation, New York, NY, USA.
- 10PD Avengers, Toronto, Canada.
- 11Department of Neurology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
- 12Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Abstract
Background
Cognitive dysfunction is a highly impactful symptom experienced by some people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Physical activity may slow cognitive impairment in PD.Objective
Evaluate associations between self-reported physical activity and prevalence and incidence of bothersome cognitive problems, as measured by the PD-Patient Report of Problems (PD-PROP).Methods
22,760 participants in Fox Insight (FI), an online, longitudinal study, completed Physical Activity Scale of the Elderly (PASE) and PD-PROP, a patient-reported outcome measure through which people with PD (PwP) report their 5 most bothersome problems related to PD. Associations between PASE and reports of cognitive problems (classified using a combination of human curation, natural language processing, and machine learning) were evaluated cross-sectionally. 9114 participants with follow-up PD-PROP assessments and no reported cognitive problems at baseline were included in longitudinal analyses to determine if physical activity levels at baseline are associated with incident reporting of cognitive problems.Results
At baseline, 32% reported at least one cognitive problem and had lower PASE Leisure scores compared with participants who did not report cognitive problems. Lower levels of physical activity were associated with increased odds of reporting cognitive problems, particularly in categories of memory (OR = 0.913), language/word finding (OR = 0.923), and cognitive impairment not otherwise specified (OR = 0.880). Longitudinally, lower baseline self-reported physical activity levels were associated with incident reporting of cognitive problems, particularly memory impairment.Conclusions
Self-reported physical activity levels are modestly associated with both increased prevalence and incident bothersome cognitive problems on the PD-PROP. Due to the subjective nature of these data, results are hypothesis-generating and should not be interpreted as evidence that physical activity prevents cognitive decline.
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BibTeX
@article{amara2026association,
title = {{Association between self-reported physical activity levels and patient reported cognitive problems in Parkinson's disease.}},
author = {Amy W Amara and Jennifer L Purks and Connie Marras and Abhishek Hosamath and Karen E Anderson and Lana M Chahine and Shirley Eberly and Daniel Kinel and Sneha Mantri and Soania Mathur and David Oakes and David G Standaert and Daniel Weintraub and Ira Shoulson and Lakshmi Arbatti},
journal = {Clinical parkinsonism \& related disorders},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.prdoa.2026.100504},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42960240},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Association between self-reported physical activity levels and patient reported cognitive problems in Parkinson's disease.
AU - Amy W Amara
AU - Jennifer L Purks
AU - Connie Marras
AU - Abhishek Hosamath
AU - Karen E Anderson
AU - Lana M Chahine
AU - Shirley Eberly
AU - Daniel Kinel
AU - Sneha Mantri
AU - Soania Mathur
AU - David Oakes
AU - David G Standaert
AU - Daniel Weintraub
AU - Ira Shoulson
AU - Lakshmi Arbatti
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Clinical parkinsonism & related disorders
DO - 10.1016/j.prdoa.2026.100504
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42960240
AB - Background Cognitive dysfunction is a highly impactful symptom experienced by some people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Physical activity may slow cognitive impairment in PD.Objective Evaluate associations between self-reported physical activity and prevalence and incidence of bothersome cognitive problems, as measured by the PD-Patient Report of Problems (PD-PROP).Methods 22,760 participants in Fox Insight (FI), an online, longitudinal study, completed Physical Activity Scale of the Elderly (PASE) and PD-PROP, a patient-reported outcome measure through which people with PD (PwP) report their 5 most bothersome problems related to PD. Associations between PASE and reports of cognitive problems (classified using a combination of human curation, natural language processing, and machine learning) were evaluated cross-sectionally. 9114 participants with follow-up PD-PROP assessments and no reported cognitive problems at baseline were included in longitudinal analyses to determine if physical activity levels at baseline are associated with incident reporting of cognitive problems.Results At baseline, 32% reported at least one cognitive problem and had lower PASE Leisure scores compared with participants who did not report cognitive problems. Lower levels of physical activity were associated with increased odds of reporting cognitive problems, particularly in categories of memory (OR = 0.913), language/word finding (OR = 0.923), and cognitive impairment not otherwise specified (OR = 0.880). Longitudinally, lower baseline self-reported physical activity levels were associated with incident reporting of cognitive problems, particularly memory impairment.Conclusions Self-reported physical activity levels are modestly associated with both increased prevalence and incident bothersome cognitive problems on the PD-PROP. Due to the subjective nature of these data, results are hypothesis-generating and should not be interpreted as evidence that physical activity prevents cognitive decline.
SN - 2590-1125
ER -