Title:Cognitive Advantage of Bilingualism Over Monolingualism in Older
Adults: A Meta-Analysis
Volume: 19
Issue: 8
Author(s): Si Chen, Yuying Lin, Shufang Zuo, Ziyu Wang, Jinghong Liang, Zheng Jiang, Yue Xu, Peiyu Wang, Xiuchen Jing*Lu Lin*
Affiliation:
- School of Nursing, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
- School of Nursing, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
Keywords:
Cognitive advantage, bilingualism, monolingualism, older adults, Alzheimer’s disease, MCI.
Abstract:
Objectives: This study aimed to explore whether bilingual older adults had a cognitive advantage
over their monolingual counterparts, and validate the influence of cognition-related (participants’
cognitive condition, the cognitive domain assessed), and bilingualism-related factors (second
language proficiency, frequency of use, acquisition time, and immigration status of participants)on the
cognitive advantage of bilingualism.
Methods: Through a systematic search of nine databases (Web of Science, PubMed, Elsevier Science
Direct, Cochrane Library, Embase, PsycINFO, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang) from the inception to April
2021, observational studies with bilingual and monolingual older adults as participants and cognitive
function scores as outcome measures were included. Two reviewers independently completed the selection
and methodological quality assessment of studies using the JBI cross-sectional study quality
evaluation tool and used a pre-designed table for data extraction and sorting.
Results: Fourteen studies with 51 tasks were included, involving 3737 participants (bilingual group:
1695, monolingual group: 2042). The overall results of the meta-analysis showed that bilingualism had
a small cognitive advantage over monolingualism in older adults [SMD=0.23, 95%CI (0.07, 0.38),
P=0.004]. In addition, the subgroup analyses indicated that factors such as participants’ cognitive condition,
the cognitive domain assessed, second language proficiency, acquisition time, and immigration
status of participants impacted the cognitive advantage of bilingualism in older adults.
Conclusion: Bilingualism had a mild cognitive advantage over monolingualism in older adults, which
was more prominent in older adults with mild cognitive impairment than in cognitively healthy ones,
more evident in global cognitive function and inhibitory control than in other individual cognitive domains,
and might be influenced by the proficiency and acquisition time of second language as well as
the immigration status of older adults.
