The Effect Of Social Activities On The Cognitive Functions Of The Elderly In Rural Areas

Cognitive health refers to the individual's cognitive function in normal or good condition which is an important factor affecting the quality of life of the elderly.In rural areas of China,a large number of young labor outflow has weakened the function of family support for the elderly and has hindered intergenerational communication,accelerating the decline of cognitive function of the elderly in rural areas.And social activities play an important role in the daily life of the vast majority of the elderly.So how does social activities affect the cognitive function of the elderly in rural areas?What are the differences in the effects of different social activities on cognitive function?In order to solve these problems,this paper will group cognitive function into two dimensions:mental health and episodic memory,and classify playing Mahjong,card games or chess,interacting with friends and taking part in other activities as social activities.This paper examines the relationship between social activities and cognitive function of the elderly in rural areas based on the latest China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS)survey data.Because social activities may be endogenous,we further investigate using OLS reduced form models whether having village activity facilities is related to cognitive function of the elderly.This article is divided into 7 parts,the main contents and conclusions of the study are as follows.Part 1:Study on the relationship between social activities and cognitive function of the elderly in rural areas.This research constructed model for the influence of social activities on the cognitive function of the elderly in rural areas,and make an empirical study on the relationship between the two dimensions of social activities and cognitive function.OLS regression results show that,playing Mahjong,chess or card games,interacting with friends,and other social activities,both individually and taken as a whole(any of the 3 activities),there are significant positive effects on the mental intactness and episodic memory of cognitive function.Part2:Study on the relationship between village activity facilities and cognitive function of the elderly in rural areas.In this paper,we further investigated the relationship between the configuration of village activity facilities and the cognitive function of the elderly in rural areas by using OLS reduced form.The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the village outdoor activity facilities and the elderly's better mental health status.And having an activity center for the elderly has a significant positive impact on the elderly's episodic memory.To some extent,the results of this study proved that there is a causal relationship between the social activities and the cognitive function of the elderly.At the same time,it shows that construct activity facilities in the village can facilitate the elderly to participate more in social activities,and thus help to delay the aging of the cognitive function of the elderly.