Frequent participation in cognitively stimulating activities may reduce one's risk of Alzheimer disease (AD), suggest findings from a longitudinal cohort study.
Researchers examined participants in the Religious Orders Study, an ongoing analysis of aging and AD. Participants included 801 older Catholic nuns, priests, and brothers without dementia who were recruited from 40 groups across the United States.
At baseline examination (conducted between January 1994 and July 2001), subjects rated the frequency of their participation in common cognitive activities (e.g., reading newspapers). From this information, the authors derived a composite measure of frequency of cognitive activity.
At baseline, scores on the composite measure of cognitive activity ranged from 1.57 to 4.71 (mean, 3.57; SD, 0.55); higher scores indicated more frequent activity. During a mean 4.5-year follow-up, 111 individuals developed AD.
A 1-point increase in cognitive activity score was associated with a 33% reduction in risk of AD (hazard ratio, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.49-0.92) in a proportional hazards model controlling for age, sex, and education. Similar results were obtained after excluding individuals with memory impairment at baseline and when terms for the apolipoprotein E e4 allele and other medical conditions were added to the model.
In a series of random-effects models, the authors also evaluated the relation of cognitive activity with change in cognitive function. Controlling for age, sex, education, and baseline level of cognitive function, a 1-point increase in cognitive activity was associated with reduced decline in global cognition (by 47%), working memory (by 60%), and perceptual speed (by 30%).
"These results suggest that frequent cognitive activity in old age is associated with reduced risk of incident AD," the authors wrote. (Wilson RS, et al. JAMA 2002;287:742-8.)
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