Cognitive leisure activities, but not watching TV, for future brain benefits

Abstract

Loss of cognition is a common and feared neurologic problem of old age. Up to 10% of older persons have dementia,1 and at least 10% more have mild cognitive impairment (MCI).2 This number with impaired cognition will increase markedly in the coming decades.1 The large and growing public health burden of cognitive impairment would best be ameliorated by the identification of modifiable risk factors for dementia and MCI.3 Engagement in cognitively stimulating leisure activities has recently been reported to reduce the risk of Alzheimer disease (AD) and to be associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline.4–9 These studies have been conducted primarily in the United States and Western Europe. In this issue of Neurology , the association between engagement in cognitively stimulating leisure activities and cognitive impairment has been extended to include risk of incident MCI, and risk of cognitive impairment in a population-based study in China.10,11 Verghese et al.10 examined risk of incident amnestic MCI in the Bronx Aging Study. The Bronx Aging Study is a prospective cohort of 437 community-residing individuals older than 75 years who were initially free of dementia or amnestic MCI. In this study, subjects were interviewed about frequency of participation in 6 cognitive activities and 10 physical activities from which composite scores were derived. Over more than 5 years of follow-up, more than 50 persons developed …