ArticleBMC geriatrics2026
Independent, joint, and temporal associations of social, intellectual, and physical leisure activities with cognitive decline in older Chinese adults: a longitudinal analysis from CHARLS.
Article in BMC geriatrics, 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
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIt remains unclear whether engaging in different types of leisure activities leads to cognitive decline and whether participation in multidomains offers additional benefits among older Chinese adults.
methodsWe analyzed 6,847 participants aged ≥ 60 years from four waves (2011-2018) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, with a mean follow-up of 6.1 years. Leisure activities were categorized as social, intellectual, or physical. Linear mixed-effects models examined associations between baseline activity and cognitive change. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models assessed temporal directionality. Multilevel structural equation models evaluated mediation by depressive symptoms and social support.
resultsHigher baseline frequency of each activity domain was independently associated with slower cognitive decline after mutual adjustment, with the strongest association for intellectual activities (β = 0.046 points/year per additional day/week, 95% CI 0.023-0.069), followed by social (β = 0.028, 95% CI 0.011-0.045) and physical activities (β = 0.024, 95% CI 0.009-0.039). Compared with no moderate-level activity, engagement in one, two, and three domains was associated with progressively slower decline (β = 0.043, 0.078, and 0.098 points/year, respectively; all P < 0.001). Within-person increases in leisure activity predicted better subsequent cognitive performance, whereas reverse paths from cognition to later activity were weak and nonsignificant. Depressive symptoms and social support jointly accounted for 37.6%-39.0% of the observed associations in statistical mediation analyses.
conclusionsGreater leisure engagement, particularly across multiple domains, was associated with slower cognitive decline in older Chinese adults. These findings support the potential of low-cost multidomain leisure activities as promising candidate factors worthy of further investigation in future intervention studies aimed at mitigating cognitive decline.
Indexed as
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.