Social isolation among elderly linked to brain atrophy

Researchers have found in a new cross-sectional study conducted in Japan that frequency of social contact was tied to brain volume in cognitively normal older adults. Further among elderly total brain volume was smaller in people who had the lowest frequency of social contact versus those with the highest frequency.

Epidemiological evidence has shown that social isolation, a low frequency of social contact with others, is associated with the risk of dementia and late-life depressive symptoms. Therefore, we hypothesized that low frequency of social contact may be involved in brain atrophy, and depressive symptoms may play some role in this relationship. We aimed to evaluate the association between low frequency of social contact and the volumes of various brain regions and to assess the extent to which depressive symptoms mediate these relationships from a large population-based multisite cohort study.

Dementia-free community-dwelling Japanese aged ≥65 years underwent brain MRI scans and a comprehensive health examination. Frequency of contact with non-cohabiting relatives and friends was determined by asking a single question with four categories: everyday, several times a week, several times a month, and seldom. Total and regional brain volumes, intracranial volume (ICV) and white matter lesions volume were estimated using FreeSurfer software. The associations between frequency of social contact and brain volumes per ICV were examined using analyses of covariance. Mediation analyses were conducted to calculate the proportion of the associations explained by depressive symptoms.

Results:

They included 8,896 participants. The multivariable-adjusted mean of the total brain volume in the group with the lowest frequency of social contact was significantly lower compared to that in the group with the highest frequency (67.3% vs 67.8%), with a significant increasing trend across the groups (p value for trend <0.001). The white matter lesions volume increased significantly with lower frequency of social contact (0.30% in the lowest frequency vs 0.26% in the highest frequency group, p value for trend <0.001). Lower frequency of social contact was associated with smaller volumes in the temporal lobe, occipital lobe, cingulum, hippocampus, and amygdala (all q value of FDR correction <0.05). The relationships appeared to be partly mediated by depressive symptoms, which accounted for 15% to 29% of the observed associations.

Lower frequency of social contact was associated with decreased total and cognitive function-related regional brain volumes. In addition, depressive symptoms partially explained the association in community-dwelling older people without dementia in Japan.

Reference:

Naoki Hirabayashi, Takanori Honda, Jun Hata, Yoshihiko Furuta, Mao Shibata, Tomoyuki Ohara, Yasuko Tatewaki, Yasuyuki Taki, Shigeyuki Nakaji, Tetsuya Maeda, Kenjiro Ono, Masaru Mimura, Kenji Nakashima, Jun-ichi Iga, Minoru Takebayashi, Toshiharu Ninomiya, for the Japan Prospective Studies Collaboration for Aging and Dementia (JPSC-AD) Study

Association Between Frequency of Social Contact and Brain Atrophy in Community-Dwelling Older People Without Dementia: The JPSC-AD Study. Neurology Jul 2023, 10.1212/WNL.0000000000207602; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000207602