A research team from McGill University and Université Laval has explored how social environments relate to cognitive health in older adults. The study, which used data from about 30,000 participants in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), analyzed a wide range of social factors and their connection to different areas of cognition.
The researchers developed three categories of social environment—labeled weaker, intermediate, and richer—by combining 24 variables that included network size, levels of support, cohesion, and isolation. Participants were Canadians aged between 45 and 84 at the time the baseline data was collected.
To assess cognitive health, the study looked at executive function, episodic memory, and prospective memory through test results previously gathered from CLSA participants.
"We identified significant associations between the social profiles and all three cognitive domains, with the intermediate and richer profiles generally exhibiting better cognitive outcomes than the weaker profile," said Daiva Nielsen, Associate Professor at the McGill School of Human Nutrition and co-first author of the paper.
Nielsen explained that while there was a clear link between stronger social environments and better cognitive performance, "the effect size of the associations (a statistical measure assessing the strength of the relationship between variables) was, however, relatively small," consistent with previous findings in this area.
She also noted that these associations were more pronounced for those aged 65 or older. This indicates that having a supportive social environment may be especially important for cognitive health later in life.
Growing awareness exists around how social connection affects public health. As Nielsen stated: "Lack of social connection has been shown to be comparable to more widely acknowledged disease risk factors such as smoking, physical inactivity and obesity. It is important to translate this knowledge to the public to empower individuals to help build meaningful connections within their communities."
The authors pointed out that their findings are correlational rather than causal; it remains possible that declines in cognition could lead people to become less socially engaged.
Looking ahead, Nielsen said her team plans further research using CLSA data. They intend to investigate changes in people's social environments over time along with other health outcomes like diet or chronic disease risk.
"This work is an excellent example of the benefits of multidisciplinary research teams that can tackle complex research questions and bring diverse knowledge and expertise," she concluded.
