Sensory-cognitive associations are only weakly mediated or moderated by social factors in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

ABSTRACT: Sensory and cognitive function both tend to decline with increasing age. Sensory impairments are risk factors for age-related cognitive decline and dementia. One hypothesis about sensory-cognitive associations is that sensory loss results in social isolation which, in turn, is a risk factor for cognitive decline. We tested whether social factors are associated with cognitive and sensory function, and whether sensory-cognitive associations are mediated or moderated by social factors. We used cross-sectional data from 30,029 participants in the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging, aged 45-85 years, who had no reported cognitive impairment or diagnosis of dementia. We found strong independent associations of self-reported social variables with hearing (pure-tone audiometry), vision (pinhole-

SUBMITTER: Hamalainen A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6928150 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature