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Social involvement, behavioural risks and cognitive functioning among older people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2009

HENRIETTE ENGELHARDT ,
ISABELLA BUBER ,
VEGARD SKIRBEKK  and
ALEXIA PRSKAWETZ
HENRIETTE ENGELHARDT*
Affiliation:
Department of Population Studies, Otto Friedrich University, Bamberg, Germany.
ISABELLA BUBER
Affiliation:
Vienna Institute of Demography, Vienna, Austria.
VEGARD SKIRBEKK
Affiliation:
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria.
ALEXIA PRSKAWETZ
Affiliation:
Vienna Institute of Demography, Vienna, Austria. Institute for Mathematical Methods in Economics, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria.
*
Address for correspondence: Henriette Engelhardt-Woelfler, Population Studies, Otto Friedrich University Bamberg, Lichtenhaidestr. 11, D-96045Bamberg, Germany E-mail: henriette.engelhardt-woelfler@uni-bamberg.de
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Abstract

This study analyses the relationships between cognitive performance, social participation and behavioural risks, taking into account age and educational attainment. We examine individual data for 11 European countries and Israel from the first wave of the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The stochastic frontier approach methodology enables us to identify different sources of plasticity on cognitive functioning while taking into account age-related decline in cognitive performance. Several social participation variables were examined: employment status, attending educational courses, doing voluntary or charity work, providing help to family, friends or neighbours, participating in sports, social or other clubs, in a religious organisation and in a political or community organisation, and we controlled for age, education, income, physical activity, body-mass index, smoking and drinking. In the pooled sample, the results clearly show that all kinds of social involvement enhance cognitive functions, in particular in work. Moreover, behavioural risks such as physical inactivity, obesity, smoking or drinking were clearly detrimental to cognitive performance. Models for men and women were run separately. For both genders, all social involvement indicators associated with better cognitive performance. The results varied by countries, however, particularly the signs of the associations with a number of indicators of social involvement and behavioural risks.

Keywords

cognitive ageingcognitive reservesocial involvementbehavioural riskssocial engagement
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 30 , Issue 5 , July 2010 , pp. 779 - 809
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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