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Early-life participation in cognitively stimulating activities and risk of depression and anxiety in late life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2023

Xinye Qiu Open the ORCID record for Xinye Qiu [Opens in a new window] ,
Andrea L. Robert ,
Kaleigh McAlaine ,
Luwei Quan ,
Joseph Mangano  and
Marc G. Weisskopf
Xinye Qiu*
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
Andrea L. Robert
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
Kaleigh McAlaine
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
Luwei Quan
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
Joseph Mangano
Affiliation:
Metals and Metal Mixtures, Cognitive Aging, Remediation and Exposure Sources (MEMCARE) Harvard Radiation and Public Health Project, Inc., Boston, MA, USA
Marc G. Weisskopf
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
*
Corresponding author: Xinye Qiu; Email: xqiu@hsph.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Background

Early-life stressful experiences are associated with increased risk of adverse psychological outcomes in later life. However, much less is known about associations between early-life positive experiences, such as participation in cognitively stimulating activities, and late-life mental health. We investigated whether greater engagement in cognitively stimulating activities in early life is associated with lower risk of depression and anxiety in late life.

Methods

We surveyed former participants of the St. Louis Baby Tooth study, between 22 June 2021 and 25 March 2022 to collect information on participants' current depression/anxiety symptoms and their early-life activities (N = 2187 responded). A composite activity score was created to represent the early-life activity level by averaging the frequency of self-reported participation in common cognitively stimulating activities in participants' early life (age 6, 12, 18), each rated on a 1 (least frequent) to 5 (most frequent) point scale. Depression/anxiety symptoms were measured by Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screener (GAD-7). We used logistic regressions to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of outcome risk associated with frequency of early-life activity.

Results

Each one-point increase in the early-life composite cognitive activity score was associated with an OR of 0.54 (95% CI 0.38–0.77) for late-life depression and an OR of 0.94 (95% CI 0.61–1.43) for late-life anxiety, adjusting for age, sex, race, parental education, childhood family structure, and socioeconomic status.

Conclusions

More frequent participation in cognitively stimulating activities during early life was associated with reduced risk of late-life depression.

Keywords

anxietycognitive stimulationdepressionearly-life interventionslate-life mental health
Type
Original Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 54 , Issue 5 , April 2024 , pp. 962 - 970
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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