Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Systematic review and meta-analysis of observational longitudinal cohort studies
PubMed 35948447 · doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000200929
What was done
Authors conducted a systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis across Cochrane, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases (PROSPERO CRD42019116857) to assess the associations between physical, cognitive, and social leisure activities and incident all-cause dementia (ACD), Alzheimer disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VD) in longitudinal studies.
What was found
Across 38 longitudinal studies including 2,154,818 baseline participants (74,700 ACD cases, 2,848 AD cases, and 1,423 VD cases): - Physical activity was associated with lower risk of ACD (RR 0.83, 95% CI 0.78-0.88), AD (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.78-0.96), and VD (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.53-0.85). - Cognitive activity was associated with reduced risk of ACD (RR 0.77, 95% CI 0.68-0.87) and AD (RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.52-0.85). - Social activity was associated with reduced risk of ACD (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.87-0.99).
Why it matters
This large meta-analysis demonstrates that engaging in physical, cognitive, and social leisure activities is consistently associated with lower risks of all-cause dementia and its major subtypes.
Limits
All included designs were observational longitudinal cohorts, leaving open the possibilities of residual confounding and reverse causation (preclinical dementia reducing participation in leisure activities). Outcomes for social activity on AD/VD and cognitive activity on VD were not reported in the abstract.
Cited by
- partial Engaging in new hobbies and maintaining openness or curiosity is associated with a lower risk of developing dementia after correcting for confounding factors.