Sustaining Cognitive Health in Aging

A Promising Path to Cognitive Resilience Volunteering May Sustain Brain Health

New research from the University of Texas at Austin suggests that engaging in prosocial behaviors, such as formal volunteering or informal helping, could support cognitive function and slow its decline in later life. Drawing from over two decades of data, the study highlights how starting these activities—and maintaining them at moderate levels—may offer cumulative benefits, presenting a modifiable lifestyle factor for aging populations.

Exploring Opportunities

As populations age, opportunities to support cognitive well-being in later life are expanding. Modifiable factors, such as maintaining healthy blood pressure, managing blood sugar, fostering positive mental health, avoiding tobacco, and improving air quality, are being addressed through interventions designed to enhance cognitive function. Recent reviews, including one in The Lancet, highlight encouraging evidence for these strategies, with particularly strong support for certain approaches. In this context, lifestyle choices like nutritious eating, regular physical activity, and meaningful social connections offer practical ways to positively influence cognitive trajectories. Social engagement, in particular, holds promise for building resilience and strengthening community ties.

Prosocial helping behaviors—actions that benefit others— are emerging as an accessible and cost-effective way to contribute to cognitive vitality.

These encompass formal volunteering with organizations and informal helping, like supporting friends or neighbors beyond one's household. Although formal volunteering has received more research focus, informal helping is widespread, especially in diverse communities where mutual support networks play a key role in fostering connection and well-being.

Distinguishing the Act of Helping from the Helper

Prior research has often compared volunteers to non-volunteers, potentially overestimating benefits due to selection effects—traits like better health or resources that predispose certain individuals to help. Results indicated mixed findings, with some longitudinal studies showing positive links but limited by methodological gaps. For instance, many overlooked the dynamic nature of these behaviors, treating them as static rather than roles people enter and exit over time.

The life course perspective offers a framework for understanding these transitions. It emphasizes how intraindividual changes, such as starting or stopping helping, can alter trajectories. Neurobiological models suggest that helping activates pathways like the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, sympathetic nervous system, and immune system, potentially building cognitive reserve through mental stimulation and problem-solving.

This study addresses these limitations by focusing on both forms of helping, examining role status (helping versus not) and time commitment (or "dose"). It expands beyond formal volunteering to include informal helping, which shares features like social integration but remains understudied.

Tracking Changes Over Two Decades

Researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative sample of 31,303 middle-aged and older adults followed from 1998 to 2020. They employed an asymmetric fixed-effects modeling approach within a multilevel framework. This method assesses intraindividual changes—variations within the same person over time—while controlling for time-invariant factors like genetics or early-life influences, strengthening causal inferences.

Helping was measured in terms of status and intensity. Formal volunteering involved organized activities, while informal helping focused on direct aid to non-household individuals. Time commitment was categorized as low (less than 2 hours weekly), moderate (2–4 hours), or high (more than 4 hours), allowing analysis of dose effects and transitions.

Results indicated that transitioning into either volunteering or informal helping was associated with higher cognitive function and a slower rate of decline.

Sustained engagement appeared to yield cumulative benefits, growing progressively over time. Moderate levels of helping—approximately 2–4 hours per week—were consistently linked to robust cognitive outcomes for both forms.

These patterns align with broader evidence on non-linear dose effects, where benefits increase with time committed but may plateau or diminish at very high levels. The findings provide unique evidence on the engagement needed, suggesting moderate commitment as an optimal starting point.

Gradual Transitions

The study underscores the value of gradual changes in helping behaviors, drawing parallels from related fields like caregiving and retirement. Abrupt shifts, such as jumping from no involvement to high-intensity helping, may be more stressful and less beneficial than phased approaches. For example, moving slowly from non-helping to moderate levels could allow better adaptation, fostering sustained cognitive advantages.

In contrast, sudden withdrawals—ceasing high-dose helping outright—might accelerate decline more than tapering off. This implies that interventions should encourage incremental engagement, starting low and building up, much like exercise programs that recommend moderate intensity for beginners to avoid harm and maximize gains. By highlighting gradual transitions, the work offers practical guidance for promoting cognitive health through accessible, community-based activities.

“Many older adults in suboptimal health often continue to make valuable contributions to those around them, and they also may be the ones to especially benefit from being provided with opportunities to help.”  - Sae Ha