Playing Analog Games Is Associated With Reduced Declines in Cognitive Function: A 68-Year Longitudinal Cohort Study

Abstract

Objectives: Playing analog games may be associated with better cognitive function but, to date, these studies have not had extensive longitudinal follow-up. Our goal was to examine the association between playing games and change in cognitive function from age 11 to age 70, and from age 70 to 79.

Method: Participants were 1,091 nonclinical, independent, community-dwelling individuals all born in 1936 and residing in Scotland. General cognitive function was assessed at ages 11 and 70, and hierarchical domains were assessed at ages 70, 73, 76, and 79 using a comprehensive cognitive battery of 14 tests. Games playing behaviors were assessed at ages 70 and 76. All models controlled for early life cognitive function, education, social class, sex, activity levels, and health issues. All analyses were preregistered.

Results: Higher frequency of playing games was associated with higher cognitive function at age 70, controlling for age 11 cognitive function, and the majority of this association could not be explained by control variables. Playing more games was also associated with less general cognitive decline from age 70 to age 79, and in particularly, less decline in memory ability. Increased games playing between 70 and 76 was associated with less decline in cognitive speed.

Discussion: Playing games were associated with less relative cognitive decline from age 11 to age 70, and less cognitive decline from age 70 to 79. Controlling for age 11 cognitive function and other confounders, these findings suggest that playing more games is linked to reduced lifetime decline in cognitive function.

Keywords: Cognition; Cognitive reserve; Games; Intellectual functioning; Longitudinal change.

Figure 1.

Life course path diagram of the regressions among sociodemographic variables, cognitive functions, and playing games. Arrows indicate direction of the regression paths, with the numbers indicating std β weights and std errors (in parentheses). All paths are significant at p < .05, except for the path from education to playing games, printed in italics.

Figure 2.

Box-and-whisker plot of Moray House Test (MHT) scores from age 11 and 70, and frequency of playing games. Raw MHT scores represent cognitive function, on a scale from 0 to 76.

Figure 3.

Trajectories of cognitive change across groups with different games playing habits. Data are plotted only for completers, that is, those individuals who participated in all four waves of data collection. General and subdomain cognitive scores are derived from the first wave hierarchical model in our latent variable analyses: tests were standardized according to the characteristics of Wave 1, factor loadings were set by Wave 1, and factor scores for all waves were then estimated. Frequency of games playing increases with brighter lines, that is, dark maroon = “never/less than yearly,” light purple = “several times a year,” turquoise = “several times a month,” light green = “several times a week,” yellow = “every day/almost every day.”