The Research - Cognitive Health
“Playing board games is a recreational activity that promotes exposure to novelty, taking initiatives, planning, adaptation to winning or losing and brings immediate pleasure to participants. Other stimulating leisure activities like reading, travelling, gardening, doing odd jobs or playing sports do not offer the same advantages and ease of practice. Thus, playing board games could be a particularly relevant way to preserve cognition and to prevent cognitive decline or dementia.
Using data with 20 years of follow-up, which is one of the longest durations of follow-up in the world for a population-based cohort, we now show that board game players have a 15% lower risk of developing dementia than non-players. This reduced risk does not seem to be only a short-term effect, as previously reported, but is also a long-term effect with a reduction observed one or even two decades after the baseline collection of this popular leisure activity. The association between board game playing and the risk of dementia remained robust after adjustment for confounding variables such as age, gender, educational level, marital status and presence or absence of stroke or diabetes.”
