Does the Association Between Leisure and Cognition Vary by Life Course Socioeconomic Status and Age?

IF 1.1 Q4 GERONTOLOGY

Ageing International Pub Date : 2026-03-23 DOI:10.1007/s12126-026-09661-z

Rongjun Sun, Zhenmei Zhang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Although it is established that both cognitive functioning and engaging in leisure activities tend to correlate with each other among older adults, what is less known is whether the association between them becomes weaker or stronger in old age. Building on recent research that shows significant interactions between life course socioeconomic status (SES) and leisure activity engagement on cognitive impairment, we aim to further explore whether such interactions vary by age among older adults by using data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey of adults aged 65 and older between 2002 and 2018. Results from the Generalized Linear Mixed Model show that virtually all leisure activities are significantly associated with cognitive impairment into old age even after controlling for life course SES. We further find that significant interactions between life course SES and leisure activity engagement on cognitive performance remain in old age. The finding that the association between leisure activity engagement and cognitive impairment is conditional on life course SES even in old age suggests the persistence of heterogeneity in the relationship between cognitive functioning and its associated factors among older adults. It is contradictory to the age-as-leveler hypothesis, which projects a convergence in health inequality in old age.

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休闲与认知的关系是否因生命历程、社会经济地位和年龄而异？

虽然已经确定，老年人的认知功能和参与休闲活动往往是相互关联的，但人们不太清楚的是，它们之间的联系是在老年时减弱还是增强。基于最近的研究表明，生命历程社会经济地位（SES）与休闲活动参与对认知障碍的影响之间存在显著的相互作用，我们的目标是通过使用2002年至2018年中国65岁及以上成年人纵向健康寿命调查的数据，进一步探索这种相互作用是否因老年人年龄而变化。广义线性混合模型的结果表明，即使在控制了生命过程SES之后，几乎所有的休闲活动都与老年认知障碍显著相关。我们进一步发现，生活过程SES和休闲活动参与对老年认知表现的显著相互作用仍然存在。休闲活动参与和认知障碍之间的联系是有条件的，即使在老年人的生活历程SES表明，在老年人的认知功能及其相关因素之间的关系的异质性持续存在。这与“年龄是平衡器”假说相矛盾，后者预测老年人的健康不平等会趋同。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Ageing International GERONTOLOGY-

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： As a quarterly peer-reviewed journal that has existed for over three decades, Ageing International serves all professionals who deal with complex ageing issues. The journal is dedicated to improving the life of ageing populations worldwide through providing an intellectual forum for communicating common concerns, exchanging analyses and discoveries in scientific research, crystallizing significant issues, and offering recommendations in ageing-related service delivery and policy making. Besides encouraging the submission of high-quality research and review papers, Ageing International seeks to bring together researchers, policy analysts, and service program administrators who are committed to reducing the ''implementation gap'' between good science and effective service, between evidence-based protocol and culturally suitable programs, and between unique innovative solutions and generalizable policies. For significant issues that are common across countries, Ageing International will organize special forums for scholars and investigators from different disciplines to present their regional perspectives as well as to provide more comprehensive analysis. The editors strongly believe that such discourse has the potential to foster a wide range of coordinated efforts that will lead to improvements in the quality of life of older persons worldwide. Abstracted and Indexed in: ABI/INFORM, Academic OneFile, Academic Search, CSA/Proquest, Current Abstracts, EBSCO, Ergonomics Abstracts, Expanded Academic, Gale, Google Scholar, Health Reference Center Academic, OCLC, PsychINFO, PsyARTICLES, SCOPUS, Social Science Abstracts, and Summon by Serial Solutions.