Cognitively healthy together | Nature Aging

In a study published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, Samtani et al. collected and harmonized social health and cognitive function data from 38,614 participants (mean age at baseline 70.5 years) across 13 longitudinal aging cohorts (follow-up of 2 to 15 years) from around the world, including low and middle-income countries. They evaluated associations between multiple social connection markers and global and domain-specific (memory, language and executive function) cognition, as well as sex differences. The authors show that good social-connection structure (such as being married or in a relationship, living with others and frequent interactions with friends and family) and quality (for example, never feeling lonely) are associated with reduced rates of cognitive decline. In contrast with previous studies, women — not men — married or in a relationship had slower global…