Dementia risk factors linked to social isolation: Study

• Social isolation are linked to risk factors for neurodegeneration.
• Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are growing public health crisis.
• Loneliness and lack of social support were found to be strongly linked.

Social lifestyle determinants, such as social isolation, are linked to risk factors for neurodegeneration, according to a new study by Kimia Shafighi of McGill University in Canada and colleagues, which was published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

With an annual global cost of more than $1 trillion US, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) are a growing public health crisis. While the connections between social lifestyle and other known ADRD risk factors are less well understood, there is growing evidence that social isolation is linked to an increased risk of ADRD.

The new study examined data from 30,097 participants in the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging and 502,506 participants in the UK Biobank. There were questions about loneliness, the frequency of social interaction, and social support on the questionnaires for both studies.

Loneliness and a lack of social support were found to be strongly linked to potentially modifiable ADRD risk factors in the study. People who smoked more, drank too much alcohol, had trouble sleeping, and didn’t do a lot of light to moderate exercise often—all known risk factors for ADRD—were more likely to be alone and without social support. In the CLSA, for instance, regular exercise with other people was linked to a 20.1% drop in the likelihood of feeling alone and a 26.9% drop in the likelihood of lacking social support.

Cardiovascular disease, vision or hearing impairment, diabetes, and neurotic and depressive behaviors—all previously linked to ADRD—were also associated with subjective and objective social isolation. For instance, in the UKBB, having trouble hearing in the face of background noise was associated with a 29.0% increase in the likelihood of feeling alone and a 9.86% increase in the likelihood of lacking social support. As a result of a participant’s neuroticism score, the odds of feeling alone and lacking social support were also 3.7 and 1.4 times higher, respectively.

The authors conclude that a promising target for preventive clinical action and policy interventions might be social isolation, which can be altered more easily than genetic or underlying health risk factors.

“Our findings underscore the importance of investigating the multiscale effect of social isolation to inform public health interventions for ADRD,” the authors added. “Given the uncertain impact of social distancing measures imposed by COVID-19,” they continued.

Also Read

Trees could reduce urban heatwave mortality by one-third

Increasing tree cover to 30% would save 0.4 degrees Celsius. Foliage covers...