Loneliness And Increased Age-Related Memory Loss

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – A University of Waterloo study reveals that loneliness, affecting about one-third of Canadians, harms memory more than social isolation. Both factors pose significant risks to the aging population.

Loneliness can occur even during social interactions. It often associated with depression and increased stress hormones, potentially affecting memory.

Researchers studied how social isolation and loneliness affect memory in middle-aged and older adults over six years. They examined four scenarios:

• being socially isolated and lonely,
• only socially isolated,only lonely, and neither.

“As we expected, people who were both socially isolated and lonely had the greatest decline in memory, which intensified over the six years,” said Ji Won Kang, lead author on the paper and a PhD candidate in the School of Public Health Sciences at Waterloo.

Surprisingly, loneliness had the second-greatest impact on memory, despite many studies focusing on social isolation’s dangers without considering loneliness.

Despite periods of social isolation, individuals can engage in cognitive stimulation through solitary pursuits. Such activities may include literary and interactive digital entertainment and the cultivation of personal interests (reading, gaming, and other  hobbies  that can enhance memory.

Kang hopes that this research will emphasize the need for community programs, especially for older adults who are both socially isolated and lonely, as they face the highest risk of memory impairment.

“Older adults in the lonely category often have lower incomes than the other groups and may have structural barriers and health conditions preventing them from connecting to their communities,” said the researcher, adding that a solution could be to implement transportation or home-visit programs.
At the same time, understanding the cause of loneliness of these people is crucial issue.

“We would need to know what is causing their loneliness. They may be connected socially and have close relationships, but for example, maybe their marriage is falling apart and they would benefit from counselling,” Kang said in a press release.

Paper:

Ji Won Kang, Mark Oremus, Joel Dubin, Suzanne L. Tyas, Charity Oga-Omenka, Meira Golberg. Exploring the differential impacts of social isolation, loneliness, and their combination on the memory of an aging population: A 6-year longitudinal study of the CLSA. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 2024; 125: 105483 DOI: 10.1016/j.archger.2024.105483

Written by Eddie Gonzales  Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer