Low social engagement linked to cognitive decline & dementia risk

  • A very large, very long-running British study found that higher social contact at age 60 was associated with a significantly lower risk of developing dementia.
  • A 3-year study of older adults found that lower social engagement was only associated with greater cognitive decline in those with higher amyloid-beta levels.

Socially active 60-year-olds face lower dementia risk

Data from the Whitehall II study, tracking 10,228 participants for 30 years, found that increased social contact at age 60 is associated with a significantly lower risk of developing dementia later in life. Someone who saw friends almost daily at age 60 was 12% less likely to develop dementia than someone who only saw one or two friends every few months.

While previous studies have found a link between social contact and dementia risk, the long follow-up in the present study strengthens the evidence that social engagement could protect people from dementia (rather than precursors of dementia bringing about a decline in social engagement).

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-08/ucl-sa6073119.php

Low social engagement plus high amyloid linked to cognitive decline

A three-year study of 217 healthy older adults (63-89) enrolled in the Harvard Aging Brain Study, has found that higher amyloid-beta levels in combination with lower social engagement was associated with greater cognitive decline over three years. Lower social engagement wasn’t associated with cognitive decline in those with a lower amyloid-beta burden.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/bawh-scl062819.php

Reference: 

Sommerlad, A., Sabia, S., Singh-Manoux, A., Lewis, G., & Livingston, G. (2019). Association of social contact with dementia and cognition: 28-year follow-up of the Whitehall II cohort study. PLOS Medicine, 16(8), e1002862. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002862

Biddle, K et al, "Social Engagement and Amyloid-b-Related Cognitive Decline in Cognitively Normal Older Adults." American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2019.05.005

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