Volunteering later in life may protect the brain against cognitive decline and dementia, new research has found.
Taking part in voluntary activities in the community in older age is associated with better cognitive function, and specifically better executive function and episodic memory.
Activities such as supporting educational, religious, health-related or other charitable organisations allow older adults to be more physically active, increase social interaction and provide cognitive stimulation that may protect the brain.
However, there has been a lack of information on the relationship between volunteering and cognitive function, especially in large, diverse populations.
Yi Lor, an epidemiology doctoral student and Rachel Whitmer, the study’s principal investigator, both from UC Davis Health, examined volunteering habits among an ethnic and racially diverse population of 2,476 older adults.
A total of 1,167 (43 per cent) of the participants reported volunteering in the past year.
The researchers found that volunteering was associated with better baseline scores on tests of executive function and verbal episodic memory. This was true even after adjusting for age, sex, education, income, practice effects and interview mode (phone versus in-person).
Those who volunteered several times per week had the highest levels of executive function.
“Volunteering may be important for better cognition in late life and could serve as a simple intervention in all older adults to protect against risk for Alzheimer’s disease and associated dementias,” Lor said.
“Our next steps are to examine whether volunteering is protective against cognitive impairment, and how physical and mental health may impact this relationship.”
Volunteering was also associated with a trend toward less cognitive decline over the follow-up time of 1.2 years, but this association did not reach statistical significance.
“You’re not in control of your family history or age — you can’t turn back the clock. But you are in control of how you spend your day and life,” Whitmer said.
“Volunteering is about keeping your brain active. It’s also about socialising, which keeps you engaged and happy, and potentially lowers stress.”
