Longitudinal effects of a cognitive activity program on cognitive function in older adults

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We launched a cognitive activity program in which elderly volunteers engaged in reading picture books to children. Seventy-five volunteers and 104 participants in a control group, living in 3 urban locations, participated in a baseline health checkup and annual follow-up health checkups across 5-year period. We compared baseline and the 5-year follow-up assessments of memory, language, intelligence and psychomotor speed. Elderly volunteers showed higher performance than controls on verbal fluency tasks assessing language and executive functions at the follow-up. The results showed that this cognitive activity program have the potential to enhance cognitive function of older adults.