Social Isolation Can Raise Dementia Risk

By Jonathan Springston, Editor, Relias Media

Older adults who spend time socially isolated may be at higher risk for developing dementia, according to the authors of a recently published paper.

Investigators collected information on more than 460,000 individuals from the United Kingdom (average age = 57 years at the start of the study) to learn more about how loneliness and social isolation might affect neurobiological mechanisms. Researchers used a battery of surveys and tests to gauge a variety of biological, physical, and psychological measures.

More than 41,000 patients reported feeling socially isolated, while more than 29,000 reported feeling lonely. Over nearly 12 years of follow-up, 649 people who reported feeling socially isolated developed dementia. After adjusting for various factors, researchers noted these patients exhibited lower volume in brain gray matter in various regions associated with learning and thinking.

“Social isolation is a risk factor for dementia that is independent of loneliness and many other covariates,” the authors concluded. “Social isolation-related brain structural differences coupled with different molecular functions also support the associations of social isolation with cognition and dementia. Social isolation may thus be an early indicator of an increased risk of dementia.”

For more on this and related subjects, be sure to read the latest issues of Hospital Case Management and Neurology Alert.