However, a 2015 review published in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity found that adults aged 60 and older spend approximately 9.4 hours a day sedentary, which is equivalent to about 65-80 percent of their waking day.
For their study, Heisz and colleagues set out to investigate the association between physical activity and dementia risk among older adults with and without the APOE e4 gene.
The researchers came to their findings by analyzing the physical activity and dementia development of 1,646 older adults who were part of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging. All participants were free of dementia at study baseline and followed up for around 5 years.
Among adults who did not carry the APOE e4 gene, the researchers found that those who did not exercise were more likely to develop dementia than those who exercised.
For APOE e4 gene carriers, however, there was no significant difference in dementia risk between those who exercised and those who did not.
According to the researchers, these findings indicate that a lack of exercise may be just as risky for dementia development than carrying the APOE e4 gene.