How to age well? Avoid cognitive decline through exercise, meeting friends and keeping your brain active, study of elderly Chinese finds

Light to moderate physical exercise, social interaction and keeping your brain active can help stave off cognitive decline as we age, a study shows

Women and older participants appeared to benefit more from cognitive activities – board games, mahjong for example – than their male and younger counterparts

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Social interaction, moderate-intensity exercise, and playing games such as mahjong to keep the brain active are key to cognitive health, a study that involved 19,000 elderly Chinese adults shows. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 6:15pm, 11 Jul 2023

Exercise, social interaction and keeping your brain active are the best ways to stave off cognitive decline in old age, according to a new, large-scale study.

The research, involving 19,000 elderly Chinese adults, looked at the range of physical exercise, social interaction and cognitive activities that were beneficial for preventing cognitive decline.

The combination of different types of activities influences cognitive function in various ways.

Exercise can protect cognition by improving physical health and maintaining brain reserve, social interaction improves mental health and encourages healthy behaviours, while cognitive activity may increase neural plasticity via complex thinking and mental training.

Exercise can protect cognition by improving physical health and maintaining brain reserve. Photo: Shutterstock

The study found that exercise, social interaction and cognitive activity were beneficial but volunteer activities were not.

It also found light- and moderate-intensity exercise was beneficial for cognition but vigorous activity was negatively related. And women appeared to benefit more from cognitive activities than men.