Date created: | Last Updated:

Category: Project

Description: Abstract: This systematic review with meta-analysis aimed to explore the association between formal social participation and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults using data from longitudinal studies. A comprehensive search was conducted in Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science for longitudinal studies that assessed the association between formal social participation and cogni-tive function in middle-aged and older adults, published between January 2010 to August 19, 2022. Risk of bias was judged using the RoBANS tool. Meta-analysis using a random-effects model was computed with odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for cognitive decline probability. Sensitivity analyses were made to explore any changes to the pooled statistical het-erogeneity and pooled effect size. Certainty of evidence was judged using the GRADE frame-work. We included 15 studies comprising 136,397 participants from 5 countries. Meta-analyses showed that formal social participation was associated with reduced cognitive decline (OR=0.78, 95% CI 0.75-0.82), with very-low certainty of evidence. Formal social participation ap-pears to enhance cognition in middle-aged and older adults, but further high-quality research is needed given the very-low certainty of evidence.