The relationship between physical activity, apolipoprotein E ε4 carriage, and brain health

Table 1 Descriptive measures of the final sample

Variable	Whole sample	Carriers	Non-carriers	p value
Sex (M; F)	32; 75	8; 25	24; 50	0.49
Age	60.48 ± 8.10	59.36 ± 7.46	60.97 ± 8.36	0.39
Education	4.62 ± 0.68	4.61 ± 0.75	4.622 ± 0.63	0.86
MMSE	29.26 ± 0.84	29.33 ± 0.89	29.23 ± 0.82	0.42
BMI	25.03 ± 3.61	25.01 ± 3.82	25.04 ± 3.55	0.90
TPA	0.0125 ± 0.0117	0.0109 ± 0.0107	0.0133 ± 0.0122	0.48
MVPA	36.34 ± 21.12	33.12 ± 17.64	37.77 ± 22.47	0.54
Forward digits	5.95 ± 1.22	5.88 ± 1.22	5.99 + 1.23	0.75
Reverse digits	4.50 ± 1.36	4.67 ± 1.65	4.43 ± 1.22	0.55
Logical mem. units	18.79 ± 11.13	20.97 ± 11.87	17.86 ± 10.76	0.25
Logical mem. gist	15.74 ± 10.87	13.69 ± 8.14	16.63 ± 11.80	0.52
Anxiety	1.71 ± 0.84	1.86 ± 2.37	1.65 ± 2.05	0.84
Depression	1.24 ± 1.62	1.27 ± 1.44	1.23 ± 1.70	0.70
Total GM	545,939 ± 51,206	546,825 ± 66,891	545,538 ± 42,833	0.80
Hippocampus	7549 ± 834	7583 ± 954	7533 ± 780	0.81
Amygdala	2730 ± 470	2721 ± 573	2734 ± 420	0.51
Precuneus	16,337 ± 2002	16,403 ± 2491	16,306.83 ± 1757	0.87
Global FA	0.4355 ± 0.017362	0.4395 ± 0.01645	0.4336 ± 0.0176	0.11
Uncinate	0.4378 ± 0.0238	0.4387 ± 0.0232	0.4374 ± 0,0242	0.87
Parahippocampus	0.4355 ± 0.0173	0.4177 ± 0.0315	0.4145 ± 0.0289	0.71

Mean values ± standard deviation for all matching variables as well as variables used for correlation analyses. These include sex (where M stands for male and F for female); age (in years); education (in terms of educational level on a 0—illiterate—to 5—postsecondary education—scale); Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE); body mass index (BMI); total physical activity (TPA, normalized by actigraphy wear time); daily average of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA, in minutes); working memory (Forward and Reverse Digit Span—forward and reverse digits); episodic memory (Logical Memory II—delayed recall; for units and gist—logical mem. units and gist); anxiety (Goldberg’s test); depression (Geriatric Depression Scale); total gray matter volume (GM, in cubic millimeter); hippocampus, amygdala, and precuneus volumes (left plus right, in cubic millimeter); global fractional anisotropy (FA); and uncinate and parahippocampal fasciculus fractional anisotropy (left and right weighted arithmetic mean). Results are displayed for the whole sample and also for each subsample of interest (APOE ε4 carriers and non-carriers). p values for the Mann-Whitney and Fisher (sex) tests are also shown. No significant between-group differences arose across all comparisons

ISSN: 1758-9193