Abstract: Abstract: Through analyzing data from the 2011 wave of Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), the present study examines the impact of leisure activities on Chinese elderly’s cognitive function. The CLHLS data were collected by Peking University’s Center for Healthy Aging and Family Studies and the China National Research Center on Aging, with support from the U.S. National Institute on Aging. The 2011-2012 CLHLS wave was undertaken in more than 800 randomly selected counties and cities of the 23 provinces in China. The survey covers about 50% of the counties and cities of those provinces. The sample areas represent 85% of the total population of China. In the 2011-2012 survey, 4,603 males and 5,585 females were included in the survey. In our analyses, we excluded those under 65 years of age, which yields a total number of 9,679 elderly, aged 65 to 114. The cognitive function variable is the dependent variable, which is defined as a dichotomous variable (1=no cognitive function impairment, 0=otherwise). Eight variables are used to measure leisure activities and a number of control variables are applied in the regression analyses. The eight variables are: outdoor activities, gardening, reading books and newspaper, playing cards or Mahjong, watching television and listening to radio, participating in social activities, number of times traveling in the past 2 years, and exercising. Except for the travel variable, all other seven variables are coded as continuous variables (1=never, 5=every day). The descriptive results show that 71% of the elderly aged 65 and over had no sign of cognitive function decline. Also, the elderly who participate more in leisure activities (including outdoor activities, watching television, listening to radio et al.) tended to have a lower likelihood of cognitive function decline. As to the control variables, the descriptive results show the majority of the respondents claimed themselves as Han, married and living with others. There were more rural and females respondents being studied in this research. The overall socioeconomic status of the elderly is relatively low. And 26.4% of the seniors had ADL disabilities. The logistic regression results demonstrate that after controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, health condition and lifestyle factors, a higher level of participation in leisure activities has significant impacts on preventing the elderly’s cognitive function decline. Specifically, with everything else being controlled, for every one level increase in participating in outdoor activities, the likelihood of the elderly who has no cognitive function impairment increases by 7%. Similarly, for every one level increase in reading newspapers/books, playing cards, playing Mahjong, watching TV, listening to the radio, participating in organized social activities prevents the elderly to have cognitive function decline by 16%, 20%,16% and 15%, respectively. According to the nature of the leisure activities studied in this research, three types of leisure activities (social activities, intelligence activities and fieldwork activities) are shown to have significant effects on preventing the elderly’s cognitive function decline. The article discusses why these three types of leisure activities have significantly positive impacts on maintaining the Chinese elderly’s cognitive function. In the end, the research highlights policy implications in terms of preventing cognitive function decline among the Chinese elderly.

Key words: elderly, cognitive function, CLHLS, leisure activities

摘要： 本文分析了中国老年健康影响因素跟踪调查（CLHLS）2011年的数据，研究了参与休闲活动对老年人认知功能的影响。研究发现，其参与各项休闲活动比例较高的老年人，其认知功能缺损的比例相对较低。回归分析结果表明，当控制了样本的人口特征（包括年龄、受教育程度、性别、居住地）、社会经济地位、健康状况、以及生活习惯等变量以后，参与社交类、益智类、以及轻度户外活动的程度越高，我国老年人认知缺损的可能性就越低。这些发现鼓励我国老年人在晚年积极参与上述几类休闲活动从而降低其认知功能衰退的风险。

关键词: 老年人，认知功能，中国老年健康影响因素跟踪调查（CLHLS）， 休闲活动