Socially active 60-year-olds have lower dementia risk: study

WASHINGTON. KAZINFORM A new study showed that people being more socially active in their 50s and 60s could have a lower risk of developing dementia later on.

The study,published in the latest edition PLOS Medicine, provided the most robust evidenceto date that social contact earlier in life could play an important role inpreventing dementia, Xinhua reports.

Theresearch team from University College London (UCL) tracked 10,228 participantswho had been asked on six occasions between 1985 and 2013 about their frequencyof social contact with friends and relatives.

Thoseparticipants also completed cognitive testing from 1997 onwards to see if theywere ever diagnosed with dementia.

Theresearchers found that increased social contact at age 60 is associated with asignificantly lower risk of developing dementia later in life.

Those whosaw friends almost daily at age 60 was 12 percent less likely to developdementia than those who only saw one or two friends every few months, accordingto the study.

There are similarstrong associations between social contact at ages 50 and 70 and subsequentdementia, though they don't reach statistical significance.

Previousstudies revealed such relationship but they couldn't rule out the possibilitythat the cognitive decline causes people to see fewer people rather than theother way around.

The newstudy with a long follow-up solidifies the evidence that social engagementcould protect people from dementia in the long run.

«Peoplewho are socially engaged are exercising cognitive skills such as memory andlanguage, which may help them to develop cognitive reserve,» said thepaper's senior author Gill Livingston at UCL. «The cognitive reserve couldhelp people cope better with the effects of age and delay any symptoms of dementia.»