Sharing a home with one or more people and weekly group engagement are strongly associated with less cognitive decline, a new study finds. In addition, never feeling lonely is also linked to reduced risk, the researchers report.
Poor social connections, including small networks, infrequent interactions and loneliness are well known to be modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline. Investigators aimed to further pinpoint factors of social connectedness that most influenced cognitive risk.
To do so, they analyzed a range of social connection measures in approximately 40,000 people across 13 international studies.
The findings revealed that being married or in a relationship, living with one or more people and never feeling lonely were associated with slower annual decline in overall cognition, compared to being single or never married, living alone and often feeling lonely.
Weekly groups
Across the studies, the strongest factors found to influence lasting cognitive health included a shared home and weekly community group engagement. These factors appear to be “fundamental components in the link with less cognitive decline,” said lead author Henry Brodaty, MD, of the University of New South Wales in Australia.
The study included long-term data from six continents, “making this the most representative analysis done on social connections and cognitive decline until now,” the researchers said.
Full findings were published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity.
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