Association of Social Support and Cognitive Aging Modified by Sex and Relationship Type: A Prospective Investigation in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

We examined whether between-persons differences and within-person changes in levels of social support were associated with age-related cognitive decline and whether these associations varied by sex and by relationship type. Executive function and memory scores over 8 years (2002–2010) were analyzed by mixture models among 10,241 adults aged ≥50 years in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Between-persons differences and within-person changes in positive social support and negative social support were independently associated with cognitive decline in different ways according to sex and relationship type. Among men, higher-than-average positive social support from a spouse/partner was associated with slower cognitive decline (for executive function, β(person-mean×time-in-study) = 0.005, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.010; for memory, β(person-mean×time-in-study) = 0.006, 95% CI: 0.000, 0.012); whereas high negative social support from all relationship types was associated with accelerated decline in executive function (for all relationships combined, β(person-mean×time-in-study) = −0.005, 95% CI: −0.008, −0.002). For women, higher-than-average positive social support from children (β = 0.037, 95% CI: 0.010, 0.064) and friends (β = 0.115, 95% CI: 0.081, 0.150)—but not from a spouse/partner (β = −0.034, 95% CI: −0.059, −0.009) or extended family (β = −0.035, 95% CI: −0.064, −0.006)—was associated with higher executive function. Associations between social support and age-related cognitive decline vary across different relationship types for men and women.