Neda Agahi has a background in public health science and received her Ph. D. at Karolinska Institutet in the spring of 2008. Her thesis was written at the Aging Research Center and concerned different aspects of leisure activities among older adults. The key findings in the thesis are that older people today, on average, participate in more leisure activities than previous cohorts. Activities and habits are often maintained into old age. Participation in leisure activities during middle age was a stronger determinant than physical function in old age for participation in leisure activities in later life.

Furthermore, she has studied the association between activities and health among older adults. The results from these studies showed an association between participation in activities and survival. For women, the associations were stronger for activities performed together with others, whereas for men solitary activities were a stronger determinant for survival. The beneficial effects of activities are seen even among those who have never participated in activities before.