A Greater Variety of Social Activities Is Associated With Lower Mortality Risk.

OBJECTIVES: More frequent engagement in social activity is often associated with better physical health outcomes. Yet, less is known about whether engagement in a greater variety of social activities such as a mix of volunteering and attending club meetings (social activity variety) is important for health. The current study assessed whether social activity variety relates to mortality risk after adjusting for social activity frequency, nonsocial activity frequency and variety, and sociodemographic covariates, and how this relationship varies depending on age. METHODS: Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we included 5,017 adults aged 51 and older who completed questions about social activity participation in 2008 and whose mortality status was recorded up to 2019. We also examined whether age moderated the relationship between social activity variety and mortality risk. RESULTS: Cox proportional hazard model analyses revealed that those with higher activity variety in social activities were more likely to survive over the following 11 years than those with low social activity variety. Moreover, age moderation indicated that the association between social activity variety with mortality risk was stronger among the oldest adults. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that a greater variety of social activities is linked to mortality risk even after adjusting for social activity frequency, nonsocial activities, and health status across adulthood.

Switching it up: Activity diversity and cognitive functioning in later life.

Participating in a broad and balanced range of daily activities (i.e., activity diversity) has been associated with better cognitive functioning in later life. One possible explanation for this finding is that high levels of activity diversity are merely a proxy for being more physically active, a factor robustly linked to cognitive health. The present study examined whether activity diversity has a unique association with cognitive functioning beyond physical movement. Community-dwelling older adults (N = 252, Mage = 73.55 years, SD = 6.39) completed a cognitive battery and then responded to ecological momentary assessments of their participation in 10 common activity types (e.g., reading, chores, social visits) every 3 hr for 5-6 days. They also wore accelerometers to track daily physical movement. Multiple regression models revealed that greater diversity in daily activities was related to higher cognitive functioning even after adjusting for physical movement and other covariates such as education level. This study further clarifies the unique relationship of activity diversity, beyond physical movement, with cognition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Not Just How Much, But How Many: Overall and Domain-Specific Activity Variety and Cognitive Functioning in Adulthood.

OBJECTIVES: Active lifestyles are related to higher levels of cognitive functioning. Fewer studies have examined the importance of engaging in different activities (activity variety) for cognitive functioning. Moreover, it is unclear whether activity variety in specific domains (i.e., cognitive, physical, or social) is important for cognitive health. The current study examined whether overall activity variety as well as variety in specific domains relate to cognitive functioning. METHODS: In Waves 2 and 3 of the Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, 3,337 adults reported their activity engagement and completed a cognitive battery. For longitudinal analyses, 2,049 participants were classified into 4 groups based on their rank ordering of activity variety across 9 years (remained high, increased, decreased, or remained low). RESULTS: Cross-sectional analyses revealed that overall activity variety was related to higher cognitive functioning over and above activity frequency; physical and social activity variety each contributed significantly and uniquely to this association. Longitudinal analyses revealed that those with consistently low overall activity variety at both waves had lower cognitive functioning at Wave 3 than those with high activity variety at either wave, after adjusting for cognitive functioning at Wave 2. Those with consistently high or increasing social activity variety had higher cognitive functioning at Wave 3 than participants with low activity variety at both waves. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that activity variety, particularly in the social domain, is related to concurrent and future cognitive function across adulthood.