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WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) – A new study has shown that people who are more socially active in their 50s and 60s may have a lower risk of developing dementia later on.
The study, published in the latest edition of PLOS Medicine, provides the strongest evidence to date that social contacts earlier in life can play an important role in the prevention of dementia.
The research team at University College London (UCL) followed 10,228 participants six times between 1985 and 2013 on the frequency of their social contacts with friends and family.
These participants also took cognitive tests from 1997 to see if they had ever been diagnosed with dementia.
The researchers found that an increase in social contacts at age 60 was badociated with a significantly lower risk of developing dementia later in life.
According to the study, those who saw friends almost every day at the age of 60 were 12% less likely to develop dementia than those who saw only one or two friends every day. some months.
There are strong similar badociations between social contact between the ages of 50 and 70 and later dementia, although they do not reach statistical significance.
Previous studies had revealed such a relationship, but they could not rule out the possibility that cognitive decline causes people to see fewer people rather than the other way around.
The new study with a lengthy follow-up reinforces the evidence that social engagement could protect people from dementia in the long run.
"Socially engaged people exercise cognitive skills such as memory and language, which could help them develop a cognitive reserve," said Gill Livingston, lead author of the journal, at UCL. "The cognitive reserve could help people cope better with the effects of age and delay the symptoms of dementia."
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