People In Mid-Life Who Say They Are In Poor Condition Are More At Risk For Dementia

A 30-year Finnish study involving 3,559 adults has found that a negative response to a single question about physical fitness in mid-life correlates to an increased incidence of dementia. Researchers noted that adults who reported that they were in poor physical condition in their fifties were four times more likely to get dementia during the next thirty years than those who said they were physically fit. The association between poor self-rated physical fitness and dementia was most prominent among people who did not have a strong genetic susceptibility for dementia. People with chronic diseases also had a strong association between poor self-rated physical fitness and dementia.