THE CONVERSATION: Doing puzzles and joining clubs could help you age well

Staying socially active through clubs and mental challenges like puzzles can help maintain physical strength and decrease frailty.

Growing old is a fact of life. But thanks to improved health care and innovative technology, more of us are living longer and healthier lives.

However, ageing isn’t always easy. That’s because your body and mind decline as you get older, and become more vulnerable to various diseases such as diabetes, dementia and some cancers.

In our new study, we followed more than 12,000 older Australians to find out if staying socially and mentally active could help people stay physically fit in older age. Here’s what we discovered.

As we age, the tissues and organs in your body start to work less effectively. This is due to a process known as biological ageing, which scientists track by measuring how well the cells in your body function.

This process affects every person differently. That’s why some people may stay healthy well into their twilight years, while others age prematurely and become physically frail.

Frailty is a common condition among older people, which affects your ability to recover from illness or injury.

It’s a sign your body is deteriorating, and may increase your risk of falling and being hospitalised. It may also leave you more vulnerable to various diseases such as heart disease, dementia and depression, and even early death.

In our recent study, we investigated whether certain social and learning-based activities could help prevent or reduce frailty in older people.

Specifically, we focused on 19 types of activities that would engage older people on either a cognitive, social or cultural level. Examples include passive mental stimulation activities such as listening to music or watching television, and more active activities such as doing puzzles or playing chess.

Importantly, our study did not look at the effect of other lifestyle factors – such as regular exercise and healthy eating – on frailty. This is because there is already much research showing these factors significantly reduce a person’s risk of premature frailty.

For our study, we recruited 12,862 Australians aged 70 years and above. All were in relatively good health and did not have any major diseases, such as heart disease or dementia.

We then followed them over an 11-year period, each year collecting data about key disease indicators. These included how much excess abdominal fat participants had and whether they smoked or not.

We also assessed their cognitive function, for example by asking them to recall a list of words after saying a sh