Identifying the Relationship between Leisure Walking and Prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias

Abstract

The literature suggests that leisure walking can play an important role in preventing dementia. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between leisure walking and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias among older adults. Using the 2020 Health and Retirement Study (HRS), 4581 responses constituted the sample for the present study. A hierarchical logit regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between leisure walking and the prevalence of AD and dementia. The results show that leisure walking has been negatively associated with the prevalence of AD and other dementias—that is, they indicate that older adults who frequently engaged in leisure walking were less likely to develop AD and other dementias. This finding suggests the importance of leisure walking as a dementia prevention program for older adults.