Depressive Symptoms, Leisure Activity Engagement, and Global Cognition in Non-Hispanic White and Black Older Adults

Abstract Prior research has linked more depressive symptoms to worse global cognition in older adulthood through lower leisure activity engagement. Less is known regarding which types of activities drive these associations. Additionally, depressive symptoms disproportionately affect cognition in Non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) versus Non-Hispanic Whites (NHW). This cross-sectional study used data from the Michigan Cognitive Aging Project (n=453, 52% NHB, Mage=63.60 years) to examine whether distinct leisure activities (solitary-cognitive, solitary-creative, community-social, physical, intergenerational-social, cognitive-games) mediated the association between depressive symptoms and global cognition and whether race moderated these associations. Lower engagement in solitary-cognitive activities partially mediated the negative association between depressive symptoms and global cognition. In multi-group models, this indirect effect was only evident in NHBs, who showed a stronger negative association between depressive symptoms and activity engagement than NHWs. While cross-sectional, findings indicate that depressive symptoms may negatively impact cognition by reducing engagement in activities that promote cognitive reserve.