Social network, cognitive function, and dementia incidence among elderly women.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVES:
We examined whether social networks had a protective association with incidence of dementia among elderly women.

METHODS:
We prospectively studied 2249 members of a health maintenance organization who were 78 years or older, were classified as free of dementia in 2001, and had completed at least 1 follow-up interview in 2002 through 2005. We used the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status-modified, the Telephone Dementia Questionnaire, and medical record review to assess cognitive status. We used the Lubben Social Network Scale-6 to assess social network. We estimated hazard ratios for incident dementia with Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for age at entry, education, hormone use, cognitive status scores, and health conditions.

RESULTS:
We identified 268 incident cases of dementia during follow-up. Compared with women with smaller social networks, the adjusted hazard ratio for incident dementia in women with larger social networks was 0.74 (95% confidence interval=0.57, 0.97).

CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings suggest that larger social networks have a protective influence on cognitive function among elderly women. Future studies should explore which aspects of social networks are associated with dementia risk and maintenance of cognitive health.

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Author information

Author/s: Crooks, Valerie C (VC); Lubben, James (J); Petitti, Diana B (DB); Little, Deborah (D); Chiu, Vicki (V);

Affiliation: Department of Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA. valerie.c.crooks(-atsign-)kp.org

Grants: AG14745 (Agency:United States NIA)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: American journal of public health (Am J Public Health), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 98 (issue 7) : pp 1221-7

Dates: Created 2008/06/11; Completed 2008/06/24;

PMID: 18511731, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Cognition
Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; epidemiology
Confidence Intervals
Dementia - diagnosis; epidemiology
Female
Health Behavior
Health Status
Humans
Incidence

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