Mobility is important for maintaining independence and active participation in old age. Life-space mobility assessment incorporates the extent of mobility in terms of the distance from home, the frequency of mobility and the need of assistance for mobility. Executive function (EF) is one of the most important higher-order cognitive abilities that control and guide goal-directed actions. The aim of the study was to examine the association between EF and life-space mobility.A cross-sectional study of 174 community-dwelling persons aged 79 to 93 years living in Central Finland, who participated in the Life-Space Mobility and Active Aging study in 2016. EF was measured with the Trail Making Test (TMT) performance and coded into tertiles according to Delta TMT; TMT-B minus TMT-A (good; Delta-TMT≤92s, intermediate; 93-161s and poor;≥162s). Life-space mobility was assessed using the Life-Space Assessment (LSA, range 0–120) and dichotomized to restricted; LSA<60 and unrestricted; LSA≥60 life-space mobility. Adjustments were made for sex, age, years of education and diagnosed depression.Mean age of the participants was 83 years and 57 % were women. 42 % of the participants had restricted life-space mobility. Logistic regression analysis revealed that people with good EF were less likely to have a restricted life-space mobility compared to those with poor EF (OR 0.394, 95 % CI 0.156–0.996) after adjustment for all covariates.People with good executive function are less likely to have restricted life-space mobility in old age. Promoting executive function could possibly help maintain mobility and active participation in old age.
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