Social isolation contributes to memory loss in older age, research by LSE’s Care and Evaluation Centre has shown for the first time.
The paper, published in Journals of Gerontology, found that both men and women were affected, but in different ways.
Men with high levels of social isolation experienced subsequent memory decline. For women it was not the overall level of lack of social contact, but rather increases in isolation that were important.
Researchers studied data from 6123 women and 5110 men over the age of 50, from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), over six two year intervals from 2002.
By using a statistical model to analyze the changes in levels of…
