Vogel Selina, Oliva Y Hausmann Andrés, Zank Susanne
Department of Rehabilitation and Special Education, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Centre for Curative Gerontology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Eur J Ageing. 2024 Dec 12;21(1):39. doi: 10.1007/s10433-024-00835-9.
In current research, social relationships are increasingly recognized for their positive associations with cognitive outcomes in older adults. One of the most vulnerable groups for cognitive decline are very old adults (80+ years). However, they are relatively underrepresented in the field. Therefore, our study aimed to test if social relationships remain a protective factor against cognitive decline in very old age, using a representative sample from the Study of Quality of Life and Well-Being in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW80+ Study). We hypothesized that social characteristics would be positively associated with global cognition and episodic memory cross-sectionally and would predict cognitive performance two years later. 1.207 very old adults were included in the representative, cross-sectional analyses, and 639 in the panel analyses. They were aged between 80 and 103 years and showed no signs of dementia. The associations between various social aspects and cognitive functions were investigated using hierarchical linear regression, controlling for relevant sociodemographic and health characteristics. Cross-sectionally, leisure engagement was positively associated with episodic memory (β = 0.53 [0.26, 0.79], p < .01) and global cognition (β = 0.50 [0.22, 0.79], p < .01), while overall network size was positively associated with global cognition (β = 0.04 [0.02, 0.07], p < .01). In contrast, we observed no associations between baseline social relationships and cognitive functions two years later. The findings suggest that while social relationships are associated with cognitive functions in very old age, short-term protective effects such as over two years may be less robust compared to other age groups.
在当前的研究中，社会关系因其与老年人认知结果的积极关联而越来越受到认可。认知衰退最脆弱的群体之一是高龄老人（80岁及以上）。然而，他们在该领域的代表性相对不足。因此，我们的研究旨在利用来自北莱茵-威斯特法伦州生活质量与幸福感研究（NRW80+研究）的代表性样本，检验社会关系在高龄时是否仍然是预防认知衰退的保护因素。我们假设社会特征在横断面研究中与整体认知和情景记忆呈正相关，并能预测两年后的认知表现。1207名高龄老人纳入了代表性横断面分析，639名纳入了面板分析。他们的年龄在80至103岁之间，且没有痴呆迹象。使用分层线性回归研究了各种社会方面与认知功能之间的关联，并控制了相关的社会人口统计学和健康特征。在横断面研究中，休闲活动参与与情景记忆（β = 0.53 [0.26, 0.79]，p <.01）和整体认知（β = 0.50 [0.22, 0.79]，p <.01）呈正相关，而整体社交网络规模与整体认知呈正相关（β = 0.04 [0.02, 0.07]，p <.01）。相比之下，我们未观察到基线社会关系与两年后的认知功能之间存在关联。研究结果表明，虽然社会关系与高龄老人的认知功能有关，但与其他年龄组相比，两年等短期保护作用可能不那么显著。
