Loneliness can raise dementia risk: Study

A new study suggests loneliness can increase the risk of dementia. Risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) include smoking, excessive drinking, poor sleep and a lack of frequent exercise. Researchers found that people with these habits had greater odds of being lonely and lacking social support.
Researchers studied the data of 502,506 UK Biobank participants and 30,097 people in the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging. Both studies asked participants about loneliness, frequency of social interaction and social support. In the Canadian study, increased regular participation in physical exercise with other people was associated with a 20.1 per ent decrease in the odds of feeling lonely and a 26.9 per cent decrease in having poor social support.
Meanwhile, the UK data showed that hearing difficulties when surrounded by background noise led to a 29 per cent increase in the odds of feeling lonely. Physical and mental health factors previously linked to ADRD, such as cardiovascular disease, vision or hearing impairment, diabetes and neurotic and depressive behaviours, were also associated with social isolation.
ADRDs are a growing public health crisis, with an annual global cost of more than $1 Trillion US dollars. According to Alzheimer’s Research UK there are 944,000 people with dementia in the UK. This will increase to over one million by 2030 and over 1.6 million by 2050.