Midlife Physical Activity, Disease Symptoms, and Quality of Life in Parkinson’s Disease: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Background : While higher levels of physical activity (PA) during midlife are associated with lower risk and later onset of Parkinson’s disease (PD), it is not understood how PA is related to PD symptoms and quality of life (QOL). The purpose of this study was to determine the direct and indirect effects of midlife PA on PD-related QOL. Methods : Data were obtained from the Fox Insight Study (n = 38,321) and included demographics, weekly hours of midlife PA (ages 36–55), neurobehavioral symptoms, nonmotor somatic symptoms, motor activities of daily living, and PD-related QOL. Structural equation modeling was conducted on those with complete data (n = 1765) to determine direct and indirect relationships of midlife PA to PD-related QOL. Results : Older age, greater proportion of males, and fewer comorbidities were found in the higher PA groups. The final model included paths from midlife PA to PD-related QOL directly and through 3 moderating variables (neurobehavioral symptoms, motor activities of daily living, and nonmotor somatic symptoms), resulting in a total standardized effect of PA on QOL of β = −0.036. Effects varied in directionality and strength. The standardized effect of neurobehavioral symptoms on QOL ( β = 0.904) was more than double that of motor activities of daily living ( β = 0.41). The final model explained 80% of variance in PD-related QOL. Conclusions : Higher levels of midlife PA were associated with reduced neurobehavioral burden, suggesting premorbid PA may be critical to lessening the burden of mood and cognitive symptoms, which are known contributors to deterioration in QOL.