- Large European study links multilingualism with healthier ageing
- People who speak several languages have lower odds of accelerated biological ageing
- Findings suggest language learning could be a simple way to support brain and body health in later life
Ageing is not just about the number of birthdays someone has had.
How quickly a body and brain age is shaped by biology, social circumstances and lifestyle. There has long been a suspicion that speaking more than one language might help protect the brain and slow age related decline, but earlier work was held back by small samples and poor control of other risk factors.
To move beyond that uncertainty, researchers carried out one of the largest analyses of multilingualism and ageing to date, asking whether speaking more than one language is linked with slower ageing across a healthy European population.
How the study was conducted
The team analysed data from more than 86,000 adults living in 27 European countries. Instead of just looking at age in years, they created a measure called a biobehavioural age gap.
This compared a person’s biological and functional profile with what would be expected for their chronological age.
They combined:
- Positive features such as physical function, education level and cognitive performance
- Adverse features such as cardiometabolic disease, sensory loss and demographic risks
This allowed them to estimate, for each person, whether they were ageing faster or more slowly than expected, and then to see how factors such as multilingualism, health, social environment and politics related to those differences.
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What they found about multilingualism
Multilingualism at country level emerged as a marked protective factor.
In cross sectional analyses, people who reported speaking multiple languages had almost 55 percent lower odds of accelerated ageing compared with those who spoke only one.
Longitudinal analyses, which followed people over time, showed that multilingual participants had about a 30 percent lower relative risk of shifting into an accelerated ageing pattern. Monolingual participants had higher odds of moving in the opposite direction.
These links held even after adjusting for:
- Physical health and long term conditions
- Social and economic environment
- Political context
- Other lifestyle habits
In other words, multilingualism appeared to offer an independent benefit over and above these factors.
What it could mean for public health
The findings suggest that learning and using multiple languages may contribute to healthier ageing and greater cognitive resilience. Because language learning is culturally adaptable and relatively low cost, the authors argue it could form part of future public health strategies for ageing populations.
Beyond direct effects on the brain, multilingualism may also enhance social connection, cultural participation and mental stimulation, all of which are known to support healthy ageing.
