N12 - Physical Activity Is Associated with Better Cognitive Function: Results from the Dog Aging Project

Abstract: Background – Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (CCD) is a form of dementia that shares many similarities with Alzheimer’s Disease. In humans, physical activity is believed to reduce risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. We explored the association between physical activity and cognitive health in a population of companion dogs, aged 6-18 years.

Hypothesis/Objectives – We hypothesized that physical activity would be associated with improved cognitive function and decreased risk of dementia, and that this association would remain robust when controlling for age, comorbidities, and potential confounders.

Animals – Our sample included 11,574 companion dogs enrolled through the Dog Aging Project. Of these, 287 had scores over the clinical threshold for CCD.

Methods – In this observational, cross-sectional study, we used owner-reported questionnaire data to quantify dog cognitive health (via the Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Rating scale), physical activity levels, health conditions, training history, and dietary supplements. We fit linear regression models with measures of cognitive health as the outcome, and physical activity—with several important covariates—as predictors.

Results – We found a significant negative relationship between physical activity and current severity of cognitive symptoms (estimate = -0.12, p < 0.001), magnitude of worsening over a 6-month interval (estimate = -0.09, p < 0.001), and whether a dog reached a clinical level of CCD (odds ratio = -0.67, p < 0.001).

Conclusions and clinical importance – Physical activity was robustly associated with higher cognitive functioning in dogs; to help determine causality, future studies can follow the same dogs longitudinally or administer physical-activity based interventions.