Sleep duration and leisure activities are involved in regulating the association of depressive symptoms, muscle strength, physical function and mild cognitive impairment

Background: In order to lessen the burden of Alzheimer's disease (AD), timely and efficient management and intervention methods for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are crucial. MCI is seen as a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia. Although sarcopenia is an important risk factor for MCI, it is unclear what factors mediates and regulates the brain-muscle communication. Our objective was to investigate the indirect moderating effects of sleep duration and leisure activity on depressive symptoms, sarcopenia and MCI. Method: Panel data from the 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) database was used in this investigation. we used Bootstrap sampling to determine the relationship between sleep duration, leisure activity, depressive symptoms, sarcopenia, and MCI in mediation and indirect moderation models. The outcome measurements were odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI). Result: After adjusting for confounding variables, we discovered that sarcopenia and its traits, such as handgrip strength, gait speed, standing test, and muscle mass, were significantly correlated with MCI. Second, the results implied that depressive symptoms played a role in modulating the link between physical function, muscle strength, and MCI. This moderating effect was impacted by short sleep duration and moderate to high levels of leisure activities. Conclusion: We discovered that MCI was highly correlated not only with physical function and muscle strength but also with depressed symptoms, which acted as a partially mediating factor in this connection. Handgrip strength, gait speed, and standing test mediated the correction of MCI caused by depression symptoms. Importantly, leisure activities and sleep duration had indirect moderating effects on the above associations, and future management policies should take these factors into account.