Cultural engagement and cognitive reserve: museum attendance and dementia incidence over a 10-year period

Abstract

SummaryTheories of cognitive reserve, disuse syndrome and stress have suggested that activities that are mentally engaging, enjoyable and socially interactive could be protective against the development of dementia. Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this study shows that for adults aged 50 and older visiting museums every few months or more was associated with a lower incidence rate of dementia over a 10-year follow-up period compared with less-frequent visiting. This association was independent of demographics, socioeconomic status, health-related variables including sensory impairment, depression, vascular conditions and other forms of community engagement. Visiting museums may be a promising psychosocial activity to support the prevention of dementia.Declaration of interestNone.

Mid-life and late life activities and their relationship with MRI measures of brain structure and functional connectivity in the UK Biobank cohort

“…Targeting non-optimal activities may in part explain the limited efficacy of current randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) on cognitive and neural outcomes [14,15]. A small number of epidemiological studies have begun to probe more activity-specific associations, suggesting that not all activities equally contribute to the risk of cognitive impairment [16][17][18].…”

The role of cultural engagement for older adults: an integrative review of scientific literature

“…Maintaining cognitive skills during museum visits was also associated with a lower incidence rate of dementia, reported in a cohort study over ten years 15 . This study also reinforces the finding that cultural engagement was associated with lesser social isolation.…”

“…In the analysis of the objectives and methodological designs, it was found that the publications were conducted exclusively with an older population (n=5) or groups of adults and older adults (n=7). In this case, five studies included people older than 45 years [5][6][7]12,15 and two considered younger people 4,10 . In articles with adult and older adult participants, age did not interfere with the results achieved.…”

“…Regarding the goals of the studies, the authors were concerned with investigating which cultural facilities the older adults chose 6,10 , assessing the perceptions of individuals when participating in cultural activities 9,[11][12][13][14]16 , and evaluating the relationship between cultural engagement and body functions [5][6][7]15 or changes.…”

“…By analyzing the relationship between cultural engagement and bodily diseases/functions, scientific studies have shown that participation in cultural activities is associated with lower decline in cognitive functions 6 , chronic pain 7 , incidence of dementia 15 and depression 5 , as well as a lower recurrence of episodes of violence 4 . These studies stated that the frequency of engagement was directly related to increased benefits [4][5][6][7]15 .…”