Gender-specific analysis of social connection patterns and risk of dementia in community-dwelling older people.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Poor social connection is considered a risk factor for dementia. Since socializing behaviors may cluster together or act compensatorily, we aimed to investigate social connection patterns and their association with dementia, for men and women separately.

Methods

A total of 12,896 community-dwelling older adults (mean ± SD age: 75.2 ± 4.3 years, 54% women) without major cognitive impairment were included. Latent class analysis was conducted using 24 baseline social connection indicators. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the association between latent classes and incident dementia over 12 (median: 8.4) years follow-up.

Results

Three distinct classes were identified in both genders: strong social connections with an intermediate frien

SUBMITTER: Htun HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11247681 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature