Associations of healthy lifestyles with cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in cognitively intact older adults: the CABLE study

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the associations between healthy lifestyles and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). METHODS: A total of 1108 cognitively intact individuals from Chinese Alzheimer’s Biomarker and LifestylE (CABLE) study were examined to evaluate the associations of AD biomarkers with healthy lifestyle factors, including no current smoking, no harmful drinking, absence of social isolation, and regular physical activity. The participants were categorized into groups of favorable, intermediate, and unfavorable lifestyles according to the lifestyle factors. The associations between overall lifestyle and CSF biomarkers were also analyzed. RESULTS: Among cognitively intact older adults, those having more social engagement had lower CSF tau (p = 0.009) and p-tau (p < 0.001) than those who had social isolation. Regular physical activity was associated with higher CSF Aβ42 (p = 0.013) and lower levels of CSF tau (p = 0.036) and p-tau (p = 0.007). However, no significant associations were found of smoking status or alcohol intake with CSF biomarkers. When the overall lifestyle of the participants was evaluated by all the four lifestyle factors, favorable lifestyle profiles were related to lower levels of CSF tau (p < 0.001) and p-tau (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that healthy lifestyles had a beneficial effect on AD pathology among cognitively intact elders. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13195-021-00822-7.