Leisure activities may lower risk for Alzheimer's disease, dementia

Leisure activities, such as reading a book, doing yoga and spending time with family and friends, were associated with a decreased risk for all-cause dementia, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, researchers reported in Neurology.

Lin Lu, PhD, of Peking University Sixth Hospital in Beijing, and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of Cochrane, PubMed, Embase and Web of Science databases to identify studies that examined the association between leisure activities and dementia.

“Previous studies have shown that leisure activities were associated with various health benefits, such as a lower cancer risk, a reduction of atrial fibrillation and a person’s perception of their own well-being,” Lu said in a press release from the American Academy of Neurology. “However, there is conflicting evidence of the role of leisure activities in the prevention of dementia.”

Thirty-eight longitudinal studies were included in the meta-analysis, with 2,154,818 participants at baseline who were monitored for at least 3 years. Of those, 74,700 developed all-cause dementia, 2,848 AD and 1,423 vascular dementia.

During the study, participants completed questionnaires and interviews to report their leisure activities, which were defined as activities that engaged participants on a mental, physical or social level.

The authors reported that physical (RR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.78-0.88), cognitive (RR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.68-0.87) and social (RR = 0.93; 95% CI, 0.87-0.99) activities were inversely associated with incidence of all-cause dementia.

Additionally, physical (RR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.78-0.96) and cognitive (RR = 0.66; 95% CI, 0.52-0.85) activities were related to a reduced risk for AD. Physical activity (RR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.53-0.85) was linked with a lower incidence of vascular dementia.

“This meta-analysis suggests that being active has benefits, and there are plenty of activities that are easy to incorporate into daily life that may be beneficial to the brain,” Lu said. “Our research found that leisure activities may reduce the risk of dementia. Future studies should include larger sample sizes and longer follow-up time to reveal more links between leisure activities and dementia.”

Reference:

Which leisure activities are linked to lower risk of dementia? https://www.aan.com/PressRoom/Home/PressRelease/5008. Published Aug. 10, 2022. Accessed Aug. 11, 2022.