Physical Activity
Physical activity is healthy for the aging brain and may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. We have several studies using body worn activity monitors to measure sedentary behavior, physical activity, and sleep in middle aged and older adults with and without Alzheimer’s Disease and most recently in perimenopausal women.
Recent Example Publications
Watts, A., Szabo-Reed, A., Baker, J., Vacek, J., Clutton, J., Mahnken, J., Key, M. N., Vidoni, E. D., & Burns, J. M. (2024). LEAP! Rx: A pragmatic approach to lifestyle medicine prescription. Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.14265
Hicks, H., & Watts, A. (2023). Differential effects of chronotype on physical activity and cognitive performance in older adults. Frontiers: Epidemiology, 3.https://doi.org/10.3389/fepid.2023.1029221
Ghosal, R., Varma, V. R., Volfson, D., Urbanek, J., Hausdorff, J. M., Watts, A., & Zipunnikov, V. (2022). Scalar on time-by-distribution regression and its application for modelling associations between daily-living physical activity and cognitive functions in Alzheimer’s Disease. Scientific Reports, 12:11558.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15528-5
Ghosal, R., Varma, V. R., Volfson, D., Hillel, I., Urbanek, J., Hausdorff, J. M., Watts, A., & Zipunnikov, V. (2021). Distributional data analysis via quantile functions and its application to modelling digital biomarkers of gait in Alzheimer’s Disease. Biostatistics, kxab041.
https://doi.org/10.1093/biostatistics/kxab041
Hicks, H., Laffer, A., Meyer, K., & Watts, A. (2021). Estimates of Physical Activity in Older Adults using the ActiGraph Low Frequency Extension Filter. Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour.
https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2020-0034
Varma, V., Ghosal, R., Volfson, D., Weiss, J., Urbanek, J., Hausdorff, J., Zipunnikov, V., & Watts, A. (2021). Continuous gait monitoring discriminates community dwelling mild AD from cognitively normal controls. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, 7(1).
https://doi.org/10.1002/trc2.12131
Vidoni, E. D., Morris, J. K., Watts, A., Perry, M., Clutton, J., Van Sciver, A., Kamat, A., Mahnken, J., Hunt, S. L., Townley, R., Honea, R., Shaw, A. R., Johnson, D. K., Vacek, J., Burns, J. M., (2021). Effect of aerobic exercise on amyloid accumulation in preclinical Alzheimer’s: A 1-year randomized controlled trial. PLoS One, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244893
Kaufman, C. S., Honea, R. A., Pleen, J., Lepping, R. J., Watts, A., Morris, J. K., Billinger, S. A., Burns, J. M., & Vidoni, E. D. (2021). Aerobic exercise improves hippocampal blood flow for hypertensive apolipoprotein ε4 carriers. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0271678X21990342
Bevan, A., Vidoni, E., & Watts, A. (2020). Rate of perceived exertion and cardiorespiratory fitness in older adults with and without Alzheimer’s disease. International Journal of Exercise Science, 13(3), 18-35.