It is known that the level of education is related to cognitive performance in some neuropsychological tests. Similarly, the type of profession and leisure activities, especially these more intellectually demanding, are included in the concept of cognitive reserve (CR). On the other hand, lower education is considered as one of the risk factors for the development of cognitive impairment in older age. The aim of this study is to examine whether the number and type of regularly performed leisure activities predict cognitive performance in older adults. The study comprised 324 healthy older adults aged between 60 and 74 years (M = 68.06 years, SD = 3.08) without serious neurological or psychiatric illnesses who are at least 2 years retired and not employed. Three composite scores (CS) were created based on the administered methods: CS Memory - Story, Boston Naming Test-15; CS Verbal - Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (Trial 1), Prague Stroop Test (Dots, Words, Colors), Verbal Fluency - Animals; CS Visuo-graphomotor - Trail Making Test (part A and B), Digit Symbol Substitution Test. Threshold of 75(th) percentile was set to identify better cognitive performance in each composite score. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to examine whether level of education, type of profession and leisure activities predict better cognitive performance in cognitive domain (i.e. performance above the 75(th) percentile). Performance in Verbal and Visuo-graphomotor CSs are significantly associated with age (r = -0.21 - -0.22; p < 0.001/3), performance in all three CS is significantly associated with the level of education (eta(boolean AND)2 = 0.08 - 0.11; p < 0.001/3), type of profession (eta(boolean AND)2 = 0.05 - 0.11; p < 0.001/3), and number of regularly performed leisure activities performed in past (r = 0.17 - 0.33; all ps < 0.01/3) and in current (r = 0.23 - 0.32; p < 0.001/3). The level of education, type of profession, and the number of leisure activities (past and current) separately predict performance above 75th percentile. When adding the number of leisure activities, the influence of education disappears, thus leisure activities mediates the effect of education on performance in the CS. Computer use, reading books, crosswords seem to have the greatest impact on better cognitive performance in older age, especially on Verbal and Visuographomotor cognitive domain. Based on the results, we can assume that leisure activities, especially these intellectually demanding, may have a positive impact on cognitive performance in older adults, moreover, activities have the potential to mitigate the negative impact of lower education.
