title: Can volunteering in later life reduce the risk of dementia? A 5-year longitudinal study among volunteering and non-volunteering retired seniors.
abstract: We propose that voluntary work, characterized by social, physical and cognitive activity in later life is associated with fewer cognitive problems and lower dementia rates. We test these assumptions using 3-wave, self-reported, and registry data from the 2010, 2012, and 2014 Swedish National Prescribed Drug Register. We had three groups of seniors in our data: 1) no volunteering (N = 531), 2) discontinuous volunteering (N = 220), and 3) continuous volunteering (N = 250). We conducted a path analysis in Mplus to investigate the effect of voluntary work (discontinuously and continuously) on self-reported cognitive complaints and the likelihood of being prescribed an anti-dementia treatment after controlling for baseline and relevant background variables. Our results indicated that seniors, who continuously volunteered, reported a decrease in their cognitive complaints over time, whereas no such associations were found for the other groups. In addition, they were 2.44 (95%CI [1.86; 3.21]) and 2.46 (95%CI [1,89; 3.24]) times less likely to be prescribed an anti-dementia treatment in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Our results largely support the assumptions that voluntary work in later life is associated with lower self-reported cognitive complaints and a lower risk for dementia, relative to those who do not engage, or only engage episodically in voluntary work.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Yannick
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5005-5443
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Griep
authors.affiliation: Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Linda Magnusson
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Hanson
authors.affiliation: Work and Organizational Psychology (WOPs), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vantilborgh
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Laurens
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Janssens
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
authors.forename: Samantha K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Centre for Innovative Ageing, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hyde
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D003704:Dementia / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D012179:Retirement; D012307:Risk Factors; D013548:Sweden; D014838:Volunteers / Q000523:psychology*