Social involvement, behavioural risks and cognitive functioning among the aged

In this study we analyse the relationship between cognitive performance, social participation and behavioural risks taking into account the influence of age and educational attainment. We examine individual data from 11 European countries and Israel that were collected in the first wave of SHARE. The methodology proposed, a stochastic frontier approach, allows us to identify the effects of the different sources of plasticity on cognitive functioning while explicitly taking into account the age-related decline in cognitive performance. Social involvement variables are employment status, attending educational courses, doing voluntary or charity work, providing help to family, friends or neighbours, participating in a sports, social or other club, participating in a religious organisation and participating in a political or community organisation. We control for age, education, income, physical activity, BMI, smoking and drinking. In the pooled sample, the results clearly show that all kinds of social involvement enhance cognitive functions, in particular the continuation of occupational activities. Moreover, behavioural risks such as physical inactivity, obesity, smoking or drinking are clearly detrimental to cognitive performance. Models for men and women were run separately. For both genders, all social involvement indicators were found to be associated with better cognitive performance. Country-specific results, however, vary across countries with respect to signs for a number of indicators of social involvement and behavioural risks.