ArticleJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD2022
Loneliness, Not Social Support, Is Associated with Cognitive Decline and Dementia Across Two Longitudinal Population-Based Cohorts.
Article in Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Selected social and lifestyle correlates of brain health markers: the Cross-Cohort Collaboration Consortium.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Pooled it
- Social Isolation and Social Support Influence Health Service Utilisation and Survival after a Cardiovascular Disease Event: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Associations between social connections and cognition: a global collaborative individual participant data meta-analysis.The lancet. Healthy longevity · 2022Pooled it
- Association between loneliness and dementia risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Possible and Probable Dementia and Depressive/Anxiety Symptoms in U.S. Older Adults: One-Year Follow-Up.Journal of aging and health · 2026Article
- Novelty-seeking and directed exploration scale with dissociable social network outcomes and brain systems in older adults.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Is my loneliness killing me? Effects of loneliness and social isolation on transitions between cognitive status categories and death.Journal of personality and social psychology · 2026Article
- Association between mild action tremor and cognition in community dwelling older adults: results from the KORA-Age study.Journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Distinct social network structures and their cognitive and psychological correlates.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Socio-environmental and health-related factors and their association with longitudinal change in brain neuroimaging markers through the plasma metabolome among UK adults: An additive Bayesian network analysis.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Investigating the trivariate reciprocal longitudinal relationships between purpose, loneliness, and cognitive function.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Cumulative loneliness and memory function among U.S. older adults: the role of depressive symptoms.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Article
- The intersection of delirium and long-term cognition in older adults: the critical role of delirium prevention.Journal of neurology · 2025Review
- Social determinants of health and risk of dementia among older men and women: A 12-year cohort study in Australia.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Changes in Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Social Support: A Gender-Disaggregated Analysis of Their Associations With Dementia and Cognitive Decline in Older Adults.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2025Article
- A community-academic partnered approach to designing a Virtual Village to address the needs of older adults living with HIV.AIDS care · 2024Article
- A Meta-analysis of Loneliness and Risk of Dementia using Longitudinal Data from >600,000 Individuals.Nature. Mental health · 2024Article
- Association of Loneliness with Functional and Cognitive Status in Minor and Major Neurocognitive Disorders.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Gender-specific analysis of social connection patterns and risk of dementia in community-dwelling older people.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- Contributions of loneliness to cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults are independent of other risk factors and Alzheimer's pathology: a narrative review.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPoor social health is likely associated with cognitive decline and risk of dementia; however, studies show inconsistent results. Additionally, few studies separate social health components or control for mental health.
objectiveTo investigate whether loneliness and social support are independently associated with cognitive decline and risk of dementia, and whether depressive symptoms confound the association.
methodsWe included 4,514 participants from the population-based Rotterdam Study (RS; aged 71±7SD years) followed up to 14 years (median 10.8, interquartile range 7.4-11.6), and 2,112 participants from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNAC-K; aged 72±10SD years) followed up to 10 years (mean 5.9±1.6SD). At baseline, participants were free of major depression and scored on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) ≥26 for RS and ≥25 for SNAC-K. We investigated loneliness, perceived social support, and structural social support (specifically marital status and number of children). In both cohorts, dementia was diagnosed and cognitive function was repeatedly assessed with MMSE and a global cognitive factor (g-factor).
resultsLoneliness was prospectively associated with a decline in the MMSE in both cohorts. Consistently, persons who were lonely had an increased risk of developing dementia (RS: HR 1.34, 95%CI 1.08-1.67; SNAC-K: HR 2.16, 95%CI 1.12-4.17). Adjustment for depressive symptoms and exclusion of the first 5 years of follow-up did not alter results. Neither perceived or structural social support was associated with cognitive decline or dementia risk.
conclusionLoneliness, not social support, predicted cognitive decline and incident dementia independently of depressive symptoms.
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Registered trials
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