This Daily Activity Could Be Linked to a 5-Year Delay in Dementia Development

Social engagement could have a major impact on the development of dementia, potentially delaying onset of the cognitive disease by five years, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago monitored more than 1,900 participants without dementia through annual evaluations.

A Delayed Onset

They found that patients who were more socially active had a delayed onset of dementia by an average of five years compared to less socially active peers.

“This study is a follow up on previous papers from our group showing that social activity is related to less cognitive decline in older adults,” Bryan James, associate professor of internal medicine at Rush, said in a press release.

“In this study, we show that social activity is associated with an increased risk of developing dementia and mild cognitive impairment, and that the least socially active older adults developed dementia an average of five years before the most socially active.”

Newsweek reached out to the study authors by email on Jan. 28 requesting further comment.

How the Study Worked

Participants in the study were monitored for roughly six-and-a-half years on average, undergoing yearly checkups to check their cognitive health.

During these checkups, researchers looked for signs of dementia or mild cognitive impairment, while participants were asked how often they volunteered, attended events or visited friends and family to measure their levels of social engagement.

The activities were rated on a scale from one (rarely) to five (almost daily) and the researchers averaged the scores.

The researchers also recorded factors like social connections, feelings of loneliness and over health, and they excluded participants who developed cognitive problems soon after the study began to reduce the chance that dementia was already affecting their social activity.

They found that frequent social activity produces a 38% reduction in dementia risk and a 21% reduction in risk of mild cognitive impairment risk compared to participants who were the least socially active.

As a result, socially active participants were likely to live three additional years on average.

Why Social Engagement Affects Dementia

While researchers aren’t certain precisely why social engagement affects dementia, it may be in part because staying socially active stimulates the brain.

Socially active people build cognitive resilience. Participating in social activities often involves mental tasks like problem-solving, memory recall and communication, which can keep the brain active and strengthen neural connections. The increased mental stimulation may help delay the onset of cognitive decline.

Social engagement can also lower stress, which is known to negatively impact brain health. High stress levels can damage the hippocampus, a brain region critical for memory and learning, by disrupting the balance of stress hormones. Being socially connected may reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation, which are linked to higher dementia risk.

According to James, one possibility is that, “Social activity challenges older adults to participate in complex interpersonal exchanges, which could promote or maintain efficient neural networks in a case of, ‘Use it or lose it’.”