High-Impact Participation? Social Activities, Activity Frequency, and Older Adult Cognition

Objectives There is growing recognition that social participation may help attenuate cognitive decline in older ages. Unfortunately, previous research often relies on participation index measures, which may obfuscate associations among cognition, specific activities, and the frequency of partaking in those activities. Methods Data are from six waves of the Health and Retirement Study ( N = 20,696). Regression models test how associations between social participation and cognition vary by social activity and by multiple specifications of activity frequency. Results Using a participation index, any new activity or increase in activity frequency was positively associated with cognition. When segregating activities, only three activities had positive associations: meeting friends, volunteering, and being a part of community organizations. We find limited evidence that activity frequency is an important moderator. Discussion Social activities likely have heterogeneous associations with older adult cognition. The frequency threshold linking social participation to cognition may be “any” regular participation in select activities.