Did You Know? Socializing Gives Older Adults a Cognitive Boost!
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When adults age 70 to 90 report more frequent, pleasant social interactions, they also have better cognitive performance on that day and the following two, research finds.
The findings, published in PLOS ONE, may have special relevance now due to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, says study leader Ruixue Zhaoyang, assistant research professor at Penn State’s Center for Healthy Aging.
“Our study is one of the first to show that whether you have social interactions on one day can immediately affect your cognitive performance that same day and also on the following days,” Zhaoyang says. “The fact that we found that the cognitive benefits of having pleasant social interactions could manifest over such a short time period was a happy surprise and could be a promising area for future intervention studies.”
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than six million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease, and that number is expected to rise to almost 13 million by 2050. Additionally, deaths from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias have risen by 16% during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zhaoyang says that without reliable drug therapies, it’s critical to find ways to help prevent these conditions before they reach the clinical stage.
“Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias impose substantial burdens on patients as well as their family and caregivers,” Zhaoyang says. “It’s important to find modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline before they progress to the clinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Social Isolation later in life is one risk factor for dementia, and also one we have some control over.”
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