Symptoms of dementia progression in cognitive impairment: the role of religious and spiritual activity

This exploratory study explores the role of religious and spiritual (R/S) activity in cognitive impairment. We used data from respondents with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) from the Health and Retirement Study and Aging, Demographics, and Memory sub-study to investigate associations between religious service attendance and behavioral expressions, cognition, and sleep disturbances independently at two different time points using Spearman’s Rho partial correlation. Religious service attendance was significantly associated with behavioral expressions, cognition, and sleep disturbances. Older adults with MCI who exhibited heightened levels of R/S activity engagement reported decreased behavioral expressions and better cognition at both time points.