Piolatto Matteo, Bianchi Federico, Rota Matteo, Marengoni Alessandra, Akbaritabar Aliakbar, Squazzoni Flaminio
Cluster of Excellence, Department of Sociology, University of Konstanz, Universität-Str. 10, Konstanz, Germany.
Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Via Conservatorio 7 20122, Milan, Italy.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Feb 11;22(1):278. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-12567-5.
A previous meta-analysis (Kuiper et al., 2016) has shown that multiple aspects of social relationships are associated with cognitive decline in older adults. Yet, results indicated possible bias in estimations of statistical effects due to the heterogeneity of study design and measurements. We have updated this meta-analysis adding all relevant publications from 2012 to 2020 and performed a cumulative meta-analysis to map the evolution of this growing field of research (+80% of studies from 2012-2020 compared to the period considered in the previous meta-analysis).
Scopus and Web of Science were searched for longitudinal cohort studies examining structural, functional and combined effects of social relationships. We combined Odds Ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using random effects meta-analysis and assessed sources of heterogeneity and the likelihood of publication bias. The risk of bias was evaluated with the Quality of Prognosis Studies in Systematic Reviews (QUIPS) tool.
The review was prospectively registered on PROSPERO (ID: CRD42019130667). We identified 34 new articles published in 2012-2020. Poor social relationships were associated with cognitive decline with increasing precision of estimates compared to previously reviewed studies [(for structural, 17 articles, OR: 1.11; 95% CI: 1.08; 1.14) (for functional, 16 articles, OR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.05; 1.20) (for combined, 5 articles, OR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.06; 1.24)]. Meta-regression, risk and subgroup analyses showed that the precision of estimations improved in recent studies mostly due to increased sample sizes.
Our cumulative meta-analysis would confirm that multiple aspects of social relationships are associated with cognitive decline. Yet, there is still evidence of publication bias and relevant information on study design is often missing, which could lead to an over-estimation of their statistical effects.
先前的一项荟萃分析（Kuiper等人，2016年）表明，社会关系的多个方面与老年人的认知衰退有关。然而，结果表明，由于研究设计和测量的异质性，统计效应估计可能存在偏差。我们更新了这项荟萃分析，纳入了2012年至2020年所有相关出版物，并进行了累积荟萃分析，以描绘这一不断发展的研究领域的演变（与先前荟萃分析所考虑的时期相比，2012 - 2020年的研究增加了80%）。
在Scopus和Web of Science中检索纵向队列研究，以考察社会关系的结构、功能和综合效应。我们使用随机效应荟萃分析将比值比（OR）与95%置信区间（CI）相结合，并评估异质性来源和发表偏倚的可能性。使用系统评价中预后研究的质量（QUIPS）工具评估偏倚风险。
该综述已在PROSPERO上进行前瞻性注册（ID：CRD42019130667）。我们确定了2012年至2020年发表的34篇新文章。与先前综述的研究相比，不良社会关系与认知衰退相关，估计精度有所提高[（结构方面，17篇文章，OR：1.11；95% CI：1.08；1.14）（功能方面，16篇文章，OR：1.12；95% CI：1.05；1.20）（综合方面，5篇文章，OR：1.15；95% CI：1.06；1.24）]。荟萃回归、风险和亚组分析表明，近期研究中估计精度的提高主要归因于样本量的增加。
我们的累积荟萃分析证实，社会关系的多个方面与认知衰退有关。然而，仍有发表偏倚的证据，且关于研究设计的相关信息常常缺失，这可能导致对其统计效应的高估。
