Elderly people who volunteer can avoid mental decline – 08/29/2023 – Equilibrium

Practicing volunteering in old age can protect the brain against cognitive decline, shows a study carried out at the University of California, Davis, in the United States, and presented at the International Conference of the Alzheimer’s Association, which took place at the end of July, in Amsterdam, in Netherlands.

Previous research has already demonstrated the benefit of this type of activity for health in general and for the socialization of the elderly. However, according to the authors, there is still a lack of information on the impact of engaging in community activities on cognitive functions, especially studies with large populations.

To fill this gap, they evaluated data from more than 2,400 elderly people, aged 74 on average, who participated in two projects that brought together a very diverse sample: the Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences Study (KHANDLE) and the Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans (STAR). In total, approximately 48% of the participants were black, 20% white, 17% Asian and 14% Latino, which was considered a major differentiator by the researchers. Most of them (43%) had participated in voluntary tasks in the previous year, working in religious, educational, health-related or charitable organizations, among others.

For one year, all participants were submitted to tests of executive functions and memory, in addition to answering interviews about lifestyle and routine of voluntary activities. Those who engaged in community work performed better; additionally, the results were even more expressive for those who performed these activities several times a week. The researchers point out that participation in this type of task not only favors physical and mental activity, but also promotes contact with other people. All of this contributes to stress reduction and stimulates a cognitive process that appears to protect the brain.

“Although there are still not many studies in this direction, we observe in clinical practice that, when people stop working, they lose their cognitive capacity and many begin to show memory deficits, for example”, says geriatrician Thais Ioshimoto, from Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein.

“Engaging in another activity makes the cognitive capacity stimulated again. In addition, there is the issue of socialization and the purpose of life, the person now has a reason to wake up every day, a task to do”, completes the doctor.

In addition to community benefits, volunteering can be a simple intervention to protect against cognitive decline in older people living in the community. The results may serve to encourage individuals of all ages to pursue this type of work, stress the study authors.