Social Relations at Work and Incident Dementia: 29-Years’ Follow-Up of the Copenhagen Male Study

OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether social relations at work were associated with incident dementia in old age. METHODS: One thousand five hundred seventy-two occupationally active men from the Copenhagen Male Study Cohort were followed from 1986 to 2014. Participants underwent a clinical examination at baseline and answered questionnaires on whether they (1) had possibilities to be in contact with coworkers, (2) could get along with coworkers, and (3) were satisfied with supervisor. Poisson regression was used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR). RESULTS: Two hundred forty five (15.6%) men were diagnosed with dementia during an average of 15.8 years of follow-up. After adjusting for potential confounders, limited contact with coworkers was associated with a higher risk of dementia (IRR = 2.49, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14 to 5.44), but the other two measures were not. CONCLUSIONS: Our data partially support that social relations at work are associated with incident dementia.