Association of social contact with dementia and cognition: 28-year follow-up of the Whitehall II cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

There is need to identify targets for preventing or delaying dementia. Social contact is a potential target for clinical and public health studies, but previous observational studies had short follow-up, making findings susceptible to reverse causation bias. We therefore examined the association of social contact with subsequent incident dementia and cognition with 28 years' follow-up.

Methods and findings

We conducted a retrospective analysis of the Whitehall II longitudinal prospective cohort study of employees of London civil service departments, aged 35-55 at baseline assessment in 1985-1988 and followed to 2017. Social contact was measured six times through a self-report questionnaire about frequency of contact with non-cohabiting relatives and friends. Demen

SUBMITTER: Sommerlad A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6677303 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature