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Highly frequent 'grandparenting' lowered cognitive performance among women

Researchers studied postmenopausal women who care for their grandchildren to determine how the social interaction affects their cognitive ability. They concluded that the highest cognitive performance was evident in those who care for a grandchild once a week, with lower memory performance and processing speed reported in those who provide care at least 5 days a week.

Published in Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society, the study included 186 Australian-born women aged 57 to 68 years who were part of a larger cohort of 438 women identified by random telephone dialing in 1991 in the Women’s Healthy Aging Project. Participants were interviewed annually for 8 years.

Various tests to measure verbal episodic memory, working memory, processing speed and executive function were administered.

Of the 131 grandmothers in the sample, researchers found that those who cared for their grandchildren 1 day/week had the highest cognitive scores in executive function and working memory.

Researchers observed lower scores in working memory performance and processing speed in grandmothers who cared for their grandchildren 5 days a week or more.

‘The evidence presented … demonstrates a relationship between grandparenting and cognition that contradicts evidence of a positive relationship between social engagement and cognition, highlighting the need for further research in this area to broaden understanding and to investigate how these results may be comparable with other social roles,” the researchers concluded.

Disclosure: See the full study for a complete list of relevant financial disclosures.