Causal discovery identifies pathways linking physical activity to dementia risk in the UK BioBank

The study used causal discovery and mediation analysis on 42,293 UK Biobank participants to map how moderate‑to‑vigorous physical activity (MVPA) reduces dementia risk. It found interconnected pathways involving depression, functional capacity, smoking, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and brain injury, with depression accounting for 15.1% of the effect. Sex‑specific analyses showed females mainly linked to metabolic and functional pathways, while males were more influenced by behavioral and cardiometabolic cascades.

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