This is one of the few studies that have longitudinally explored the relation between leisure activities and dementia. The authors carefully tested the hypothesis that leisure activities contribute to the reserve against dementia by reserving a set of skills or repertoires that allow the individual to cope longer before the clinical manifestations of AD emerge. After controlling for many relevant confounders, they found inverse associations between leisure activities and incident dementia. We also detected similar associations in an ongoing longitudinal population-based study, in which we followed 732 elderly individuals for an average of 6.4 years. The absence of these leisure activities may not be a risk factor but rather a surrogate marker for the actual risk factor as discussed in the study. Further research is worthwhile to clarify these associations due to the possible implication of intervention.

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