Photo Credit: Makhbubakhon Ismatova

The following is a summary of “Association between sedentary behavior and dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies,” published in the May 2025 issue of BMC Psychiatry by Luo et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess the association between sedentary behavior (SB) and dementia.  

They queried PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library from inception to November 3, 2024, and 2 authors independently extracted data from the included studies, including hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), to estimate the risk of dementia associated with SB. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. A random effects model was applied if I2 > 50% and P< 0.10; otherwise, a fixed-effect model was used. Publication bias was evaluated by a funnel plot, and a leave-1-out sensitivity analysis was performed.  

The results showed that 10 studies were included, with 9 of high quality. The analysis revealed an increased risk of dementia among individuals with SB (pooled HRs, 1.17; 95%CIs, 1.06–1.29). Individuals with high sedentary time (ST), defined by TV viewing, had a 31% higher risk of dementia compared to those with low ST (pooled HRs, 1.31; 95% CIs, 1.25–1.37). No significant risk increase was found for individuals with high computer usage time (pooled HRs, 0.89; 95% CIs, 0.73–1.09). However, when SB was defined by other methods, individuals with high ST had a 33% higher risk of dementia compared to those with low ST (pooled HRs, 1.33; 95% CIs, 1.25–1.42).  

Investigators concluded that while SB increased the risk of dementia and was defined by computer usage time that had not shown this association. 

Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-025-06887-0