A prospective study of the association of cognitive and motor function with odds of life space constriction in older adults

Abstract Background Many studies indicate that smaller life space is related to worse cognitive and motor function. It is plausible that cognitive and motor function also predict life space constriction, thus long‐term, prospective studies are needed of cognitive and motor function as predictors of life space. Methods A total of 1246 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project, who reported initial maximal life space and at least one follow‐up assessment were included in this prospective study, with up to 19 years follow‐up. The outcome of interest was the Modified version of the Life Space Questionnaire; which we categorized into large (beyond community), medium (neighborhood/community), and small (home/yard) life space. Participants also had detailed composite measures of global cognition and motor function as predictors and available at the first life space assessment. Life space transitions over one‐year periods were modeled using multistate Markov modeling, including confounders and both predictors simultaneously. Results Better cognitive and motor function were broadly associated with lower odds of life space constriction ( Cognitive : Large ➔ medium: OR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.83–1.00; Large ➔ small: OR = 0.85, 95% CI 0.74–0.97; Medium ➔ small: OR = 1.01, 95% CI 0.82–1.22. Motor : large ➔ medium: OR = 0.76, 95% CI 0.69–0.83; large ➔ small: OR = 0.58, 95% CI 0.51–0.67; medium ➔ small: OR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.57–0.87). Conclusions Combined with previous literature that life space predicts function, these results support the notion of complex inter‐relations of cognitive function, motor function, and life space.