Tari, Benjamin;
Kunzi, Morgane;
Raymont, Vanessa;
(2025)
Call up the (cognitive) reserves: how adult socialisation and education influences cognition in the UK Biobank.
Frontiers in Psychology
, 16
, Article 1542282. 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1542282.
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Abstract
Introduction: Dementia involves the loss of memory and degradation of cognitive function. Crucially, the onset of dementia may be prevented by identifying and modifying relevant risk factors years before disease onset in midlife. Commonly described modifiable risk factors include social isolation and educational attainment. Here, we aim to understand the relationships between adult activities and their effects on cognition related to mid-life aging in terms of where and how people live. Methods: We analysed data from the UK Biobank (N = 502,165, M<inf>age</inf> = 56.53, SD<inf>age</inf> = 8.09, 54.40% female). In particular, our path analysis investigated the associations between years of education in childhood, education later in life, social activities in adulthood, built environment (i.e., coastal distance and percentage of greenspace), socioeconomic status (i.e., Townsend deprivation index), and cognitive functions (i.e., memory, executive function, and abstract reasoning). Results: Adult education and social activities predict better cognition. Being deprived predicts attendance in adult education classes, but fewer social activities and poorer cognition. Moreover, living in areas with less greenspace and being further away from coastlines predict attendance in adult education classes; however, only greenspace predicts participation in social activities. Finally, less greenspace and further coastal distance support abstract reasoning, whereas further coastal distance predicts poorer executive function. Conclusion: We demonstrate the potential utility of adult education and social activities which may offset the detrimental effects of deprivation. Accordingly, we argue for improved access to adult social programs in deprived/underserviced areas in the United Kingdom.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Call up the (cognitive) reserves: how adult socialisation and education influences cognition in the UK Biobank |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1542282 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1542282 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2025 Tari, Künzi and Raymont. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | Social Sciences, Psychology, Multidisciplinary, Psychology, education, leisure activities, built environment, socioeconomic status, UK Biobank, cognition, SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS, NEIGHBORHOOD |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10211617 |
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