An evaluation study on the prevention of Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by external factors through Physical activity (PA)-Evidence from a National Survey

The morbidity rate of Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) for people aged 65 and above reaches up to 20.8% and it can be seen frequently in the younger-age group in China. The ageing and MCI not only greatly influence the physical and mental health of the aged, but also increasingly aggravate burden to the country and society. This paper aims to explore whether depression is a mediating variable between SES and MCI and whether Physical activity (PA) can mediate the relationship among different variables, provide practical reference for effective prevention, mitigate depression, and reduce the MCI risk. This paper uses the panel data of CLHLS (The Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey) in 2018. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS and PROCESS macro. The research results indicate that SES has a significant negatively correlation with MCI of the aged in China. Depression partially mediated the relation between Socioeconomic status (SES) and MCI. Importantly, PA can partially moderate the direct and indirect path between SES and MCI, and showed some differences between different groups. For male group, PA significantly enhanced the inhibitory effect of SES on depression and weakened the promotion effect of depression on MCI, while for the female group, PA only worked by weakening the effect of depression on MCI.