Leisure Activities as Protective Factors Against Alzheimer's Disease : A Case-Control Study

Won, C W; Na, D L; Choi, H R

Abstract

BACKGROUNDS: Regular participation in leisure activities has been found to be associated with better cognitive performance. Many Koreans play Korean card game, Baduk('Go'), and the Korean chess. For these activities specific for Koreans, there has been no study to show the association between the risk of dementia and these acitivities. METHOD: Eighty-two cases identified as affected by Alzheimer's disease were obtained, and two controls were individually matched to each case according to age(+/-5 years), sex, education level, and the area of residence. A structured questionnaire was administered to the surrogate of cases and controls, by four well-trained interviewers.
RESULTS
The age of the cases ranged between 54 and 87 years old. The cases did not differ from the controls with regard to education, occupation, religion, type of housing, home ownership, living space, smoking and drinking habits. In a conditional logistic regression analysis, hours per day spent for chores (odds ratio, 1.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.04~2.27) were positively associated with Alzheimer's disease. In contrast, reading books(odds ratio, 0.10; 95% confidence interval, 0.02~0.63) was negatively associated with Alzheimer's disease. No statistical association was found with Korean card game, Baduk('Go'), or the Korean chess.
CONCLUSION
Reading books is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, but not for Korean card game, 'Go', Korean chess. In contrast, doing chores is associated with a increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.