Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32688161›Full record

ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2020

Social contact, social support, and cognitive health in a population-based study of middle-aged and older men and women in rural South Africa.

Guy Harling, Lindsay C Kobayashi, Meagan T Farrell, Ryan G Wagner, Stephen Tollman, Lisa Berkman

Open access · hybridAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
24citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
4.3field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Social connectedness and cognitive outcomes in rural middle- to older-age adults.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026
    Review
  3. The Strength of Long-Distance Ties for Aging Healthy With HIV: The Case of Rural South Africa.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 5 institutions in 5 countries.

Guy HarlingInstitute for Global Health. University College London, United Kingdom; Africa Health Research Institute, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA; MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Electronic address: g.harling@ucl.ac.uk.
Lindsay C KobayashiDepartment of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Meagan T FarrellHarvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Ryan G WagnerMRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Stephen TollmanMRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; INDEPTH Network, Accra, Ghana.
Lisa BerkmanHarvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA; MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System · ZAAfrica Health Research Institute · ZAHarvard University · USIndepth Network · GHUniversity of Michigan–Ann Arbor · US

Funding

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PREDICTORS OF PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONP01AG041710 · NIA · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · PI Julia Katherine Rohr · 2013 to 2026
$37.3M
NIA NIH HHS P01 AG041710Wellcome Trust 058893/Z/99/AWellcome Trust 069683/Z/02/ZWellcome Trust 085477/B/08/ZWellcome Trust 085477/Z/08/ZWellcome Trust (210479/Z/18/Z
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundSeveral theories seek to explain how social connections and cognitive function are interconnected in older age. These include that social interaction protects against cognitive decline, that cognitive decline leads to shedding of social connections and that cognitive decline leads to increased instrumental support. We investigated how patterns of social contact, social support and cognitive health in rural South Africa fit with these three theories.

methodWe used data from the baseline of "Health and Aging in Africa: a Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH community in South Africa" (HAALSI), a population-based study of 5059 individuals aged ≥ 40 years. We evaluated how a range of egocentric social connectedness measures varied by respondents' cognitive function.

resultsWe found that respondents with lower cognitive function had smaller, denser social networks that were more local and more kin-based than their peers. Lower cognitive function was associated with receipt of less social support generally, but this difference was stronger for emotional and informational support than for financial and physical support. Impairment was associated with greater differences among those aged 40-59 and those with any (versus no) educational attainment.

conclusionsThe patterns we found suggest that cognitively impaired older adults in this setting rely on their core social networks for support, and that theories relating to social connectedness and cognitive function developed in higher-income and higher-education settings may also apply in lower-resource settings elsewhere.

Indexed as

Rural PopulationSocial SupportAdultAgedCognitionFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesMaleMiddle AgedSouth AfricaCognitive functionCognitive impairmentEducational attainmentGenderSocial networksSocial supportSouth Africa

Identifiers

PMID32688161
PMCPMC7441312
OpenAlexW3038936353

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.