Page 62 - IJPS-8-1

International Journal of
Population Studies Cognitive functioning and active life engagement

associated with more likelihood of spending time idling the social context of rural China and some activities such
or doing nothing (sedentary time). This implies that the as volunteer work (which was considered an important
higher percentage and intensity among older adults in indicator of social engagement) were not considered due
rural China who spent in sedentary time are not caused by to very low participation rate. Therefore, we were not able
their limited cognitive functioning, but may due to a lack to examine the association between functional health and
of resources in individuals and the region of rural China. volunteering. In addition, one inevitable limitation of
According to the IFM model, in addition to functioning longitudinal research is attrition and the self-selection of
ability, active life engagement is also constrained by participants over time. The individuals who dropped out of
external resources (the World Health Organization, 2001). the study were more vulnerable than those included in our
It is highly possible that poor resource in those rural analyses. The excluded sample may have underestimated
Chinese older adults make them have few choices, but to the effect of cognitive functioning on the life engagement
participate in sedentary time. Another possibility is that of older parents. Finally, the R square in some of our
older adults in rural China does not have positive life style regression models was very low which may be attributed
due to their low levels of education. to the miss of some key variables. Those key variables for
engagement of physical activity and sedentary time should
5. Strengthens and Limitations
be explored in future study.
An important strength of this study is that a 24-h recall
time diary was used to collect participants’ time-use 6. Conclusions
on all types of activities, which was considered to be This study shows the overall low levels of active life
more precise and accurate than the questions on time engagement among older adults in rural China. Cognitive
spent collected from general social surveys or stylized functioning and its decline impact the pattern of active life
retrospective studies (Brenner, 2011; Sabbath, Matz-Costa, engagement among older people in rural China, which
Rowe, et al., 2016; Ver Ploeg, Altonji, Bradburn, et al., suggests that the active life engagement of older adults was
2000). In addition, the data used in this study come from limited by their declining cognitive functioning. However,
a seven-wave longitudinal survey which has overall high their associations with different types of activities were less
participation level (over 95% responded to the survey) consistent. The findings of this study suggest the need for
and low rate of lost follow-up (<8%). Our cohort study increasing awareness of the influence of cognition on daily
with the latest two-wave data allowed us to examine the activities. The early detection of cognitive impairment
association between changes of functional health and life presents a good opportunity for interventions to maintain
engagement. Furthermore, because the baseline functional older adults’ cognitive functioning in rural China. Given
ability was measured before the collection of the study that active life engagement is critical to improve healthy
outcomes, this survey data enables us to examine whether
cognitive functioning could predict older adults’ active life life expectancy and the quality of life in older adults, it
engagement in later time. is important to increase their positive engagement. For
example, we did not find the effect of cognitive functioning
However, we need to acknowledge several limitations on sedentary time. Future programs in rural China need
in this study. First, functional health status is very likely to enrich the daily activities based on their cognitive
to be both a precursor and a product of healthy time-use, functioning among older adults.
creating a cycle of advantage or disadvantage (Aartsen,
Smits, Van Tilburg, et al., 2002; Schooler and Mulatu, 2001). Funding
The present study only examined the impacts of functional This work was supported by the Major Project of National
status at baseline and its decline on life engagements in Social Science Foundation of China (21ZDA103).
follow-up by controlling the baseline time-use. We will
examine the potential reciprocal relationship between Conflicts of Interest
functional health and life engagement in the future.
Future research should also explore the causal relationship The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflicts of
between cognitive decline trajectories and time-use pattern. interest.
A second limitation stems from the fact that our data come Authors’ Contributions
from a well-defined area of central China, which is thought
to largely reflect the social and cultural conditions of poor All authors participated in (a) the study conception and
rural areas. The study findings may not be generalizable to design, or the analysis and interpretation of data, (b) the
older adults in other rural areas of China. A third limitation drafting of the article or its critical revision for important
is that the six categories of activities are grouped based on intellectual content, and/or (c) approval of the version to

Volume 8 Issue 1 (2022) 56 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v8i1.1301