Cognitive resources moderate the adverse impact of poor perceived neighborhood conditions on physical activity

Poor neighborhood conditions are associated with lower levels of physical activity in older age, but socio-ecological models put forth that physical activity is dependent on both environmental and individual factors. Older adults’ abilities to overcome environmental physical activity barriers may partially rely on cognitive resources. However, evidence on the moderating role of these cognitive resources in environmental barrier and physical activity behavior associations is still lacking. We analyzed cross-national and longitudinal data on 28,876 adults aged 50 to 96 years in SHARE survey. Lack of access to local services and neighborhood nuisances were used as indicators of poor neighborhood conditions. Delayed recall, verbal fluency, and time orientation were used as indicators of cognitive resources. Confounder-adjusted linear mixed models were conducted to test associations between neighborhood conditions and self-reported physical activity, as well as the moderating role of the cognitive resources. We found that poor neighborhood conditions, especially low access to local services, were associated with less frequent engagement in physical activity and with a steeper decline of engagement in physical activity across aging. Moreover, cognitive resources robustly reduced the adverse influence of poor neighborhood conditions on physical activity. These findings suggest that cognitive resources can temper the detrimental effect of poor neighborhood conditions on physical activity. Public policies should target both individual and environmental factors to tackle the current pandemic of physical inactivity more comprehensively.