Leisure Activities and Change in Cognitive Stability: A Multivariate Approach

Abstract

Aging is traditionally associated with cognitive decline, attested by slower reaction times and poorer performance in various cognitive tasks, but also by an increase in intraindividual variability (IIV) in cognitive performance. Results concerning how lifestyle activities protect from cognitive decline are mixed in the literature and all focused on how it affects mean performance. However, IIV has been proven to be an index more sensitive to age differences, and very little is known about the relationships between lifestyle activities and change in IIV in aging. This longitudinal study explores the association between frequency of physical, social, intellectual, artistic, or cultural activities and age-related change in various cognitive abilities, considering both mean performance and IIV. Ninety-six participants, aged 64–93 years, underwent a battery of cognitive tasks at four measurements over a seven-year period, and filled out a lifestyle activity questionnaire. Linear multilevel models were used to analyze the associations between change in cognitive performance and five types of activities. Results showed that the practice of leisure activities was more strongly associated with IIV than with mean performance, both when considering overall level and change in performance. Relationships with IIV were dependent of the cognitive tasks considered and overall results showed protective effects of cultural, physical and intellectual activities on IIV. These results underline the need for considering IIV in the study of age-related cognitive change.

Development of the Broad Learning Adult Questionnaire

“…(2002, 2007) employed self-reported questionnaires to assess the frequency of participation in cognitively demanding activities, such as watching television, listening to the radio, reading newspapers or magazines or books, playing card or board games, completing puzzles, and visiting libraries and museums. Another study used the Leisure Activity Questionnaire, which included activities, such as playing chess and completing crossword puzzles (Mella, Grob, Döll, Ghisletta, & de Ribaupierre, 2017). Finally, Carlson et al.…”

Do Musicians Have Better Mnemonic and Executive Performance Than Actors? Influence of Regular Musical or Theater Practice in Adults and in the Elderly

“…To this end, various behavioral interventions have been proposed, such as physical activity and cognitive training ( Colcombe and Kramer, 2003 ; Jaeggi et al, 2008 ; Karbach and Kray, 2009 ; Fauvel et al, 2013 ; Sprague et al, 2019 for reviews), and the benefits of arts practices for promoting health have received growing interest. Importantly, while prior studies have undoubtedly shown the association between arts engagement and well-being ( Mella et al, 2017 ; Fancourt and Steptoe, 2019 ), objective measurement of the specific cognitive benefit associated with repeated and regular art practices like acting or music across the lifespan, have not been carried out to the best of our knowledge.…”

A Decade Later on How to “Use It” So We Don’t “Lose It”: An Update on the Unanswered Questions about the Influence of Activity Participation on Cognitive Performance in Older Age

“…Positive findings from studies focused exclusively on single activities (e.g., crosswords [67], museum attendance [68]) are slightly misleading as no single activity is the driver of cognitive performance and change. Moreover, the activity domains associated with specific cognitive domains might vary by other factors such as gender [4, 7], activity variety [69, 70], or whether cognitive performance or intraindividual variability [71] are considered. To briefly review this work, general trends from studies that assessed a wide range of cognitive and activity domains are summarized.…”