Elayoubi Joanne, Nelson Monica E, Haley William E, Hueluer Gizem
School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
Gerontologist. 2022 Mar 28;62(3):364-374. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnab095.
Positive associations between social connection/engagement and cognitive function are well documented. However, little is known about whether social connection/engagement can buffer the impact of serious brain injury such as stroke on cognitive functioning.
Participants were 898 individuals with incident stroke from the Health and Retirement Study between 1998 and 2012. Multilevel modeling was used to examine how social connection/engagement was associated with episodic memory pre- and poststroke. Models controlled for age, gender, education, race/ethnicity, number of health conditions, and functional health.
Participants who were lonely prestroke recalled significantly fewer words at the time of stroke, and participants who had children residing within 10 miles prestroke showed significantly less decline in word recall over time. Participants who provided help to others prestroke showed less stroke-related decline in word recall. Within-person increase in partnered status, having friends, and helping others were related to better word recall in the poststroke period.
Higher prestroke levels of social connection/engagement predicted better episodic memory at stroke, a smaller decline in episodic memory with stroke, and less decline in episodic memory over time. Increases in social connection/engagement from pre- to poststroke also predicted better poststroke episodic memory. Beyond the widely documented benefits of social connection/engagement to well-being, they may also increase cognitive stimulation and cognitive reserve and thus contribute to stroke recovery in the cognitive domain. Social connection/engagement is an important and modifiable risk factor in older adults.
社会联系/参与和认知功能之间的正向关联已有充分记录。然而，对于社会联系/参与是否能够缓冲诸如中风等严重脑损伤对认知功能的影响，我们知之甚少。
研究对象为1998年至2012年间来自健康与退休研究的898例新发中风患者。采用多水平模型来研究社会联系/参与与中风前后情景记忆的关联。模型对年龄、性别、教育程度、种族/民族、健康问题数量以及功能健康状况进行了控制。
中风前感到孤独的参与者在中风时回忆出的单词明显较少，中风前有孩子居住在10英里范围内的参与者随着时间推移单词回忆能力的下降明显较少。中风前向他人提供帮助的参与者与中风相关的单词回忆能力下降较少。在个体内部，伴侣状态的增加、有朋友以及帮助他人与中风后更好的单词回忆相关。
中风前较高水平的社会联系/参与预示着中风时更好的情景记忆、中风后情景记忆下降幅度较小以及随着时间推移情景记忆下降较少。从中风前到中风后社会联系/参与的增加也预示着中风后更好的情景记忆。除了社会联系/参与对幸福感的广泛记录的益处外，它们还可能增加认知刺激和认知储备，从而有助于认知领域的中风恢复。社会联系/参与是老年人重要且可改变的风险因素。
