Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether leisure activities influence on the cognitive functions in middle aged and elderly people. Eight hundred and twenty rural community residents (age ranged from 39 to 88) participated in the study. They answered a questionnaire regarding 28 leisure activities, (e.g., walking, gardening, handicrafts, and reading) and subjects rated the frequency of the leisure activities on the rating scales ranged from 1 (almost never) to 5 (more than once a week). Five hundred and two of them participated in cognitive tests with their consent. The cognitive tests consisted of 3 kinds of letter fluency tests (Ito et al. 2002), digit cancellation tests (Hatta et al. 2001), and tests of immediate and delayed recall of a 25 word-sentence (Wechsler's Memory Scale). A factor analysis was conducted to explore the interrelationship among leisure activities and correlational analyses were also conducted to examine the relations between leisure activities and cognitive functions that reflect the activities of the prefrontal area. There were positive correlations between some leisure activities (watching video-tapes, listening to music, reading, visiting art galleries, flower arrangement, tea ceremony, calligraphy, traveling, driving) and the cognitive functions. It was suggested that some leisure activities could improve the cognitive functions.
