94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Geriatric Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1493359
Social participation patterns and associations with subsequent cognitive function in older adults with cognitive impairment: a latent class analysis
Provisionally accepted- Zhongshan Hospital, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Background: Social participation (SP) has been associated with cognitive benefits among older adults; however, little is known about SP patterns and their relationships with cognitive function in cognitively impaired populations. This study aimed to identify SP patterns among cognitively impaired older individuals and evaluate their associations with subsequent cognitive function, specifically mental intactness and episodic memory. Methods: Data were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), including 5,673 individuals aged 60 years and older with cognitive impairment from 2015 to 2018. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify SP patterns, and hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between these patterns and cognitive function.Results: Four distinct SP patterns were identified: "Offline Social Participation Group" (Class 1), "Intellectual Social Participation Only Group" (Class 2), "Club and Volunteer Activities Group" (Class 3), and "Minimal Social Participation Group" (Class 4). The Class 4 comprised the majority (73%) and exhibited the poorest cognitive outcomes. Compared to the Class 4, Class 2 showed significant improvements in mental intactness (P < 0.001) and episodic memory (P = 0.022), while Class 3 demonstrated significant improvements in mental intactness (P = 0.032) but not episodic memory. Class 1 showed significant improvements in episodic memory (P = 0.023).This study highlights the cognitive benefits of social participation, particularly intellectual activities, for older adults with cognitive impairment. Targeted interventions promoting SP, especially intellectual activities, are essential to mitigate cognitive decline and improve cognitive resilience in vulnerable populations.
Keywords: older, cognitive impairment, Social Participation, latent class analysis, Chinese
Received: 09 Sep 2024; Accepted: 11 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Feng and Chen. 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) or licensor 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.
* Correspondence:
Qingling Chen, Zhongshan Hospital, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.