Social engagement before and after dementia diagnosis in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 8; p. e0220195
• Main Authors: Hackett, Ruth A, Steptoe, Andrew, Cadar, Dorina, Fancourt, Daisy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01.08.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Aged; Aging; Aging (Biology); Aging - psychology; Alzheimer's disease; Biology and Life Sciences; Care and treatment; Case-Control Studies; Cognitive ability; Correlation analysis; Data collection; Dementia; Dementia - psychology; Dementia - therapy; Dementia disorders; Diagnosis; Engineering and Technology; Female; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Loneliness; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical diagnosis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental depression; Middle Aged; Neurophysiology; Neurosciences; Neurotrophins; Older people; People and Places; Physicians; Self Report; Social factors; Social groups; Social interaction; Social Sciences; Systematic review; Telephone - statistics & numerical data; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220195

Social engagement protects against dementia onset. Less is known about patterns of social engagement around the time of dementia diagnosis. We investigated face-to-face and telephone contact at three times (pre-diagnosis, at report of diagnosis, 2 years post-diagnosis) in individuals who developed dementia and a comparison group. Social engagement was assessed at waves 2-7 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing in 4171 individuals aged 50 and older. Dementia was ascertained by either self-reported physician diagnosis or through an informant evaluation of a participant's functional and cognitive performance compared with a few years earlier. Generalized estimating equations were used to examine differences by group, time, and group-by-time interactions. The dementia group reported less face-to-face (p < 0.001) and telephone contact (p < 0.001) than the dementia-free group pre-diagnosis. The dementia group experienced greater reductions in social engagement leading up to dementia diagnosis and in the 2 years following diagnosis (p's < 0.001). Given that social engagement reduces dementia risk and supports the lived experience of people with dementia, it is important to find ways of promoting social interaction in older adults.