IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v75y2020i7p1414-1422..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Loneliness and Risk of Dementia

Author

Listed:
  • Angelina R SutinPhD
  • Yannick StephanPhD
  • Martina LuchettiPhD
  • Antonio TerraccianoPhD
  • Lynn MartirePhD

Abstract

ObjectiveThe present study tests whether loneliness is associated with risk of dementia in the largest sample to date and further examines whether the association is independent of social isolation, a related but independent component of social integration, and whether it varies by demographic factors and genetic vulnerability.MethodParticipants from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 12,030) reported on their loneliness, social isolation, and had information on clinical, behavioral, and genetic risk factors. Cognitive status was assessed at baseline and every 2 years over a 10-year follow-up with the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICSm). A TICSm score of 6 or less was indicative of dementia.ResultsCox proportional hazards regression indicated that loneliness was associated with a 40% increased risk of dementia. This association held controlling for social isolation, and clinical, behavioral, and genetic risk factors. The association was similar across gender, race, ethnicity, education, and genetic risk.DiscussionLoneliness is associated with increased risk of dementia. It is one modifiable factor that can be intervened on to reduce dementia risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Angelina R SutinPhD & Yannick StephanPhD & Martina LuchettiPhD & Antonio TerraccianoPhD & Lynn MartirePhD, 2020. "Loneliness and Risk of Dementia," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 75(7), pages 1414-1422.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:75:y:2020:i:7:p:1414-1422.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gby112
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:75:y:2020:i:7:p:1414-1422.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.