More Active People With Parkinson's Had Slower Movement and Thinking Decline

The evidence is observational. The researchers analysed 294 people with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease enrolled in the Cincinnati Cohort Biomarker Program between January 2019 and February 2025. The average age was 66.4 years, and 33.0% were women. Follow-up lasted up to 5 years for thinking tests and up to 7 years for movement tests. A study like this can show that two things go together. It cannot show that one causes the other.

Activity was assessed through standardized interviews. The team calculated total physical activity time, total activity volume, and time spent in vigorous activity. The study measured yearly change on a movement scale (MDS-UPDRS-III, where higher is worse) and a thinking test (the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, where higher is better). According to the ScienceDaily coverage, participants completed these assessments each year.

Higher scores on all three activity measures were each linked to slower decline in thinking and slower motor progression. The researchers split participants into thirds by total activity time. The average yearly change on the thinking test was −0.478 points in the least active third, −0.090 in the middle third and −0.007 in the most active third. The most active group, in other words, stayed close to level.

Movement scores followed the same direction. They rose by 0.143 points a year in the least active third, meaning slight worsening. They fell by 0.225 in the middle third and by 0.783 in the most active third. According to the ScienceDaily coverage of the study, the groups reported up to four hours a week, four to eight hours, and more than eight hours of activity.

The statistical strength differed between the two outcomes. For thinking, the most active third did better than the least active third by 0.470 points a year (95% confidence interval 0.203 to 0.737; p < 0.001). For movement, the gap was −0.926 points (95% confidence interval −1.835 to −0.017; p = 0.048). That movement result sits close to the edge of statistical significance.

The study also looked at timing and intensity. Recent activity stayed linked to changes in both scores even after the researchers accounted for activity over the previous 10 years. Vigorous activity, however, was no longer linked to outcomes once total activity time was taken into account. The authors suggest the benefits of moderate-to-vigorous activity may relate to how long people are active and whether they keep it up. That means the study does not show that vigorous exercise carries a special advantage. The authors list several limitations: the observational design, self-reported activity, and potential selection bias. According to the ScienceDaily coverage, which reported the funding as the Gardner Family Foundation and the Precision Medicine in Neurodegenerative Diseases Fund, lead author Dong-Woo Ryu of the University of Cincinnati said the differences were small and that participants generally had good thinking skills at the start. "Our results should be interpreted with caution and further studies are needed," he said.

The finding sits alongside an October 17 report in The Arising on volunteering and slower memory decline in carriers of a high-risk Alzheimer's gene. That was a different study in a different group. Like this one, it points to an everyday habit linked to slower decline, and like this one, it cannot prove cause.

Studies that measure activity directly and test whether assigned exercise changes the course of Parkinson's disease.