Abstract: Social isolation has been directly related to structural changes in areas of the brain associated with memory and cognitive function. Researchers report that socially isolated people are 26% more likely to develop dementia later in life.
Source: University of Warwick
Scientists have found that social isolation is directly related to changes in brain structures associated with memory, making it a clear risk factor for dementia.
In order to investigate how social isolation and loneliness were related to subsequent dementia, researchers at the University of Warwick, Cambridge University, and Fudan University used neuroimaging data from more than 30,000 participants in the study. UK Biobank data set. Socially isolated individuals were found to have lower volumes of gray matter from brain regions involved in memory and learning.
The results of the study are published online in Neurology.
Based on data from the UK Biobank, an extremely large longitudinal cohort, the researchers used modeling techniques to investigate the relative associations of social isolation and loneliness with dementia for all incident causes.
After adjusting for various risk factors (including socioeconomic factors, chronic illness, lifestyle, depression, and APOE genotype), it was shown that socially isolated individuals were 26% more likely to develop dementia.
Loneliness was also associated with later dementia, but this association was not significant after adjusting for depression, which accounted for 75% of the relationship between loneliness and dementia. Therefore, in relation to the subjective feeling of loneliness, objective social isolation is an independent risk factor for subsequent dementia. Additional subgroup analysis showed that the effect was prominent in those over 60 years of age.
Data show that socially isolated people are 26% more likely to develop later dementia
Professor Edmund Rolls, a neuroscientist in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick, said: perceived subjectively.
“Both have health risks, but using the UK’s extensive multimodal data set, and working in a multidisciplinary way linking computer science and neuroscience, we have been able to show that this is social isolation. , rather than the feeling of loneliness, which is an independent risk factor for later dementia.This means that it can be used as a predictor or biomarker of dementia in the UK.
“With the growing prevalence of social isolation and loneliness in recent decades, this has been a serious but undervalued public health problem. Now, in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are implications for to the interventions and the care of the social relations, especially in the greater population “.
Professor Jianfeng Feng, of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick, said: “We emphasize the importance of an environmental approach to reducing the risk of dementia in older adults by ensuring that they are not socially isolated. During future pandemic blockages, it is important that people, especially the elderly, do not experience social isolation. “
Professor Barbara J Sahakian, of the Cambridge University Department of Psychiatry, said: “Now that we know the risk to brain health and dementia from social isolation, it is important that ensure that older people communicate and interact with others on a regular basis. “
About this research news on social isolation and dementia
Author: Sheila KigginsSource: University of WarwickContact: Sheila Kiggins – University of WarwickImage: Image is in the public domain
Original search: Closed access. “Associations of social isolation and loneliness with subsequent dementia” by Edmund Rolls et al. Neurology
Summary
Associations of social isolation and loneliness with subsequent dementia
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Goal
Investigate independent associations of social isolation and loneliness with incidental dementia and explore possible neurobiological mechanisms.
Methods
We used the UK Biobank cohort to establish Cox proportional risk models with social isolation and loneliness as separate exposures. Demographic (gender, age, and ethnicity), socioeconomic (educational level, family income, and Townsend deprivation rate), biological (BMI, APOE genotype, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other disabilities), cognitive (processing speed, and visual memory ), Adjusted behavioral (current smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity) and psychological (social isolation or loneliness, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism) factors measured at baseline. Voxel-level brain association analyzes were then used to identify volumes of gray matter (GMV) associated with social isolation and loneliness. Partial least squares regression was performed to test the spatial correlation of GMV differences and gene expression using the Allen Human Brain Atlas.
Results
462,619 participants were included (mean age at baseline 57.0 years [SD 8.1]). With a mean follow-up of 11.7 years (SD 1.7), 4,998 developed dementia for all causes. Social isolation was associated with a 1.26-fold increase in the risk of dementia (95% CI, 1.15-1.37) regardless of various risk factors, such as loneliness and depression (i.e. , full adjustment). However, the fully adjusted risk ratio for loneliness-related dementia was 1.04 (95% CI, 0.94-1.16); and 75% of this ratio was attributable to depressive symptoms. Structural MRI data were obtained from 32,263 participants (mean age 63.5 years). [SD 7.5]). Socially isolated individuals had lower GMVs in the temporal, frontal, and other regions (e.g., hippocampus). Mediation analysis showed that the identified GMVs partially mediated the association between baseline social isolation and cognitive function in follow-up. Lower social isolation-related GMVs were associated with overexpression of genes that are down-regulated in Alzheimer’s disease and with genes involved in mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative phosphorylation.
Conclusion
Social isolation is a risk factor for dementia that is independent of loneliness and many other covariates. Structural differences in the brain related to social isolation along with different molecular functions also support the associations of social isolation with cognition and dementia. Therefore, social isolation may be an early indicator of an increased risk of dementia.