The Daily Association Between Leisure Activity Engagement and Cognitive Function
Angie Sardina, Alexa Allan, Lesley Ross, Alyssa Gamaldo

TL;DR
This study explores how daily leisure activities relate to cognitive function in older adults, finding that more daily activities are linked to better memory performance.
Contribution
The study provides new insights into the daily variability of leisure activity engagement and its cognitive benefits in diverse aging populations.
Findings
Participants engaged in an average of seven leisure activities per day with significant intraindividual variability.
Higher daily leisure activity engagement was associated with better memory task performance.
No significant within-person or sociodemographic interaction effects were found for cognitive measures.
Abstract
Regular leisure activity engagement (LAE) is a protective factor for maintaining cognition and reducing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) risk. However, limited research has explored the association between daily LAE and cognition despite evidence of both LAE and cognition varying daily in sociodemographic heterogenous aging populations. Thus, this study examined 1) intraindividual variability in daily LAE; 2) the association between LAE and cognitive functioning (within-person and between-person); and 3) whether the LAE and cognitive association varies by sociodemographic characteristics. Data from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity Across the Life Span (HANDLS) Sleep sub-study were utilized. Using a mobile device, participants (N = 211; age range=46-83; 68% Black; 73% female) reported their daily participation in 56 leisure activities (e.g., choir, reading,…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsDementia and Cognitive Impairment Research · Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management · Physical Activity and Health
