According to Yuri Silva Portela, a postgraduate specialist in geriatrics, among the activities with the greatest potential to simultaneously improve cognition, mood, and social connections in older adults, team games and group competitions hold a place that geriatric medicine still underutilizes as a formal health intervention. Competing as part of a team, solving challenges together, laughing at shared mistakes, and celebrating collective achievements combine cognitive stimulation, physical movement, positive emotions, and social interaction in a way that few structured programs can match with the same level of natural engagement.
Below, you’ll discover why an hour of group games can provide benefits for older adults that no list of cognitive exercises can make feel as genuinely enjoyable.
What do group games do for cognitive function in older adults?
Participating in a group competition or team game requires a range of cognitive functions that are rarely exercised so comprehensively in everyday life. In practice, understanding the rules demands attention and working memory. Planning strategies in real time engages executive functions. Likewise, anticipating the actions of other participants activates theory of mind. Adapting to unexpected situations requires cognitive flexibility. All of this happens simultaneously in a genuinely motivating environment, which amplifies the cognitive benefits of every challenge.
Yuri Silva Portela explains that the variety of games and challenges within a competition is, in itself, a therapeutic element. It prevents the cognitive complacency that occurs when older adults repeatedly perform the same familiar activity, keeping the brain in a state of meaningful challenge—the exact condition that produces the most significant benefits for cognitive reserve. An older adult who never knows what the next round will bring is experiencing precisely the kind of novelty an aging brain needs to remain active and responsive.
Joy, laughter, and the effects of positive emotions on the body
Group games and friendly competitions are among the few activities that consistently generate genuine laughter in geriatric settings, and laughter has well-documented physiological effects that extend far beyond a simple sense of well-being. Laughing triggers the release of endorphins, lowers cortisol levels, stimulates the immune system, and promotes vasodilation, producing positive effects on blood pressure that can last for hours after the laughter ends. For older adults who experience little joy in their daily lives, an hour of group games may be one of the most effective interventions available for improving both mood and physical health.
In Yuri Silva Portela’s view, there is also a unique benefit to shared joy that solitary laughter cannot provide. When a group laughs together over the same situation, emotional synchronization occurs, creating a state of shared emotional resonance that strengthens interpersonal bonds far more quickly and deeply than serious conversations often can.
Social connections and the community built through play
Group games have a distinctive social dimension that sets them apart from other forms of interaction. They create a shared experience with a beginning, middle, and end, including moments of tension, relief, and celebration that everyone experiences together. This shared emotional journey in real time is one of the most effective mechanisms for building meaningful relationships in any social setting.
According to Yuri Silva Portela, groups of older adults who regularly participate in team games and friendly competitions often develop relationships that extend well beyond the activities themselves. They stay in touch between gatherings, show concern for one another’s health and absences, and develop a strong sense of belonging to a community with its own identity. These relationships have a documented positive impact on loneliness and overall mental well-being—areas that are often progressively affected by social isolation in later life.
How can group competitions be effectively implemented in geriatric settings?
Organizing group competitions for older adults does not require sophisticated resources or highly specialized professionals. Activities such as a spoon-and-potato relay race, trivia games featuring familiar cultural topics, team memory challenges, and ring toss games are accessible examples that combine light physical activity, cognitive stimulation, and social interaction without requiring physical abilities that would exclude participants with mobility limitations.
Yuri Silva Portela emphasizes that the secret to a therapeutically effective group competition is not the complexity of the activities but the quality of the emotional experience it creates. A simple game session that encourages an older adult to laugh, stay engaged, and feel part of a group for an hour accomplishes exactly what geriatric medicine needs most—and often struggles to prescribe: genuine joy shared in the company of others.
