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Social Isolation and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: There is some evidence to suggest that social isolation may be associated with poor cognitive function in later life. However, findings are inconsistent and there is wide variation in the measures used to assess social isolation. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analy...

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Autores principales: Evans, Isobel E.M., Martyr, Anthony, Collins, Rachel, Brayne, Carol, Clare, Linda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: IOS Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6700717/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30372678
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180501
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author Evans, Isobel E.M.
Martyr, Anthony
Collins, Rachel
Brayne, Carol
Clare, Linda
author_facet Evans, Isobel E.M.
Martyr, Anthony
Collins, Rachel
Brayne, Carol
Clare, Linda
author_sort Evans, Isobel E.M.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: There is some evidence to suggest that social isolation may be associated with poor cognitive function in later life. However, findings are inconsistent and there is wide variation in the measures used to assess social isolation. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the association between social isolation and cognitive function in later life. METHODS: A search for longitudinal studies assessing the relationship between aspects of social isolation (including social activity and social networks) and cognitive function (including global measures of cognition, memory, and executive function) was conducted in PsycInfo, CINAHL, PubMed, and AgeLine. A random effects meta-analysis was conducted to assess the overall association between measures of social isolation and cognitive function. Sub-analyses investigated the association between different aspects of social isolation and each of the measures of cognitive function. RESULTS: Sixty-five articles were identified by the systematic review and 51 articles were included in the meta-analysis. Low levels of social isolation characterized by high engagement in social activity and large social networks were associated with better late-life cognitive function (r = 0.054, 95% CI: 0.043, 0.065). Sub-analyses suggested that the association between social isolation and measures of global cognitive function, memory, and executive function were similar and there was no difference according to gender or number of years follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Aspects of social isolation are associated with cognitive function in later life. There is wide variation in approaches to measuring social activity and social networks across studies which may contribute to inconsistencies in reported findings.
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spelling pubmed-67007172019-09-03 Social Isolation and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Evans, Isobel E.M. Martyr, Anthony Collins, Rachel Brayne, Carol Clare, Linda J Alzheimers Dis Research Article BACKGROUND: There is some evidence to suggest that social isolation may be associated with poor cognitive function in later life. However, findings are inconsistent and there is wide variation in the measures used to assess social isolation. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the association between social isolation and cognitive function in later life. METHODS: A search for longitudinal studies assessing the relationship between aspects of social isolation (including social activity and social networks) and cognitive function (including global measures of cognition, memory, and executive function) was conducted in PsycInfo, CINAHL, PubMed, and AgeLine. A random effects meta-analysis was conducted to assess the overall association between measures of social isolation and cognitive function. Sub-analyses investigated the association between different aspects of social isolation and each of the measures of cognitive function. RESULTS: Sixty-five articles were identified by the systematic review and 51 articles were included in the meta-analysis. Low levels of social isolation characterized by high engagement in social activity and large social networks were associated with better late-life cognitive function (r = 0.054, 95% CI: 0.043, 0.065). Sub-analyses suggested that the association between social isolation and measures of global cognitive function, memory, and executive function were similar and there was no difference according to gender or number of years follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Aspects of social isolation are associated with cognitive function in later life. There is wide variation in approaches to measuring social activity and social networks across studies which may contribute to inconsistencies in reported findings. IOS Press 2019-08-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6700717/ /pubmed/30372678 http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180501 Text en © 2019 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Evans, Isobel E.M.
Martyr, Anthony
Collins, Rachel
Brayne, Carol
Clare, Linda
Social Isolation and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
title Social Isolation and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
title_full Social Isolation and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
title_fullStr Social Isolation and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Social Isolation and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
title_short Social Isolation and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
title_sort social isolation and cognitive function in later life: a systematic review and meta-analysis
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6700717/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30372678
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180501
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