Volunteering, polygenic risk for Alzheimer's disease, and cognitive functioning among older adults.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

In the context of the public health burden posed by increases in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) prevalence around the globe and the related research efforts to identify modifiable risk factors for the disease, we sought to provide an empirical test of earlier claims that volunteering may be considered as a health intervention that could help to prevent or delay the onset of AD.

Method

Using nine waves of panel data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (n=9,697), we examined whether volunteering conferred cognitive health benefits in later life and whether volunteering served a gene-regulatory function to help alleviate cognitive decline associated with polygenic risk for AD. Multilevel models were used to estimate associations between volunteering, polygenic risk fo

SUBMITTER: Han SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7527033 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature