ArticleAmerican journal of preventive medicine2026
Unconditional Quantile Regression Analysis of Volunteering and Cognitive Functioning: Implications for Cognitive Impairment and Dementia.
Article in American journal of preventive medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionVolunteering is widely recognized for its health benefits, including improved cognitive functioning and delayed onset of cognitive impairment and dementia. However, the extent to which these cognitive benefits vary across individuals with different levels of cognitive functioning, particularly among those with cognitive impairment, remains unclear.
methodsThis study used 195,633 person-wave observations from 31,371 adults in the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2020). Unconditional quantile regression models with fixed effects were employed to examine how the cognitive benefits of volunteering-measured by participation status and annual time commitment-differ across the population distribution of cognitive functioning.
resultsVolunteering was associated with better cognitive functioning on average, but the benefits were most pronounced at the lower end of the distribution, corresponding to those experiencing cognitive impairment or probable dementia. Moderate engagement (approximately 2-4 hours per week) yielded the largest cognitive benefits for these groups, whereas benefits plateaued at higher levels of engagement.
conclusionsVolunteering may serve as a scalable, lifestyle-based strategy for maintaining or improving cognitive health, particularly among those at risk for or already experiencing cognitive decline. These findings highlight the importance of tailoring volunteer opportunities to match individual capacities and suggest that even modest engagement can produce meaningful cognitive benefits.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.