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Study: Lockdowns may trigger surge in dementia cases

Being alone more was linked to a 26 percent increased risk of dementia.

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Lonely Asian Senior man was sick and sitting on wheelchair. Retirement age lifestyle and stay at home alone.
Lockdowns increased social isolation and loneliness globally. (Photo by Perfect Angle Images via Shutterstock)

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

Lockdowns may trigger a surge in new dementia cases, suggests a new study.

Researchers have shown that social isolation - a lack of regular contact with other people - is linked to lower brain volume in areas related to thinking and a higher risk of dementia.

The study found that being alone more was linked to a 26 percent increased risk of dementia, separately from other risk factors such as depression and loneliness.

Study author Doctor Jianfeng Feng said: “Social isolation is a serious yet under-recognized public health problem that is often associated with old age.

“In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation, or the state of being cut off from social networks, has intensified.

"It’s more important than ever to identify people who are socially isolated and provide resources to help them make connections in their community.”

The study, published in the journal Neurology, looked at more than 460,000 people across the United Kingdom with an average age of 57 at the beginning of the study who were followed for nearly 12 years before the pandemic.

Of the participants, 41,886 (nine percent) reported being socially isolated, and 29,036 (six percent) felt lonely. During the study, 4,998 developed dementia.

Researchers collected survey data from the participants, along with a variety of physical and biological measurements, including MRI data.

The participants also took thinking and memory tests to assess their cognitive function.

For social isolation, people were asked three questions about social contact: whether they lived with others; whether they had visits with friends or family at least once a month; and whether they participated in social activities such as clubs, meetings or volunteer work at least once a week.

People were considered socially isolated if they answered no to at least two questions.

Of the 41,886 people with social isolation, 649 developed dementia (1.55 percent), compared to 4,349 people of the 420,733 people who were not socially isolated (1.03 percent).

After adjusting for factors including age, sex, socio-economic status, alcohol intake and smoking, and other conditions such as depression and loneliness, the researchers found that socially isolated people had lower volume in the brain’s grey matter in various regions involved with learning and thinking.

The team found that people who were socially isolated partially due to lockdowns were 26 percent more likely to develop dementia than those with no social isolation.

Researchers also looked at loneliness, but after adjusting, saw no strong link with developing dementia.

Dr. Feng, of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, added: “People who reported high levels of social isolation had significant differences in brain volume, also associated with cognition and dementia.

“Given the findings of this study, social isolation may be an early indicator of an increased risk of dementia.”

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