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Alzheimer's & Dementia
Social Contact Protects Senior Citizens from
Alzheimer's Damaging Effects
Social network
offers protection despite the tangles and plaques of Alzheimer's
April 21, 2006 - Having close friends and staying
in contact with family members offers a protective effect against the
damaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease according to research by
physicians at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The study,
which is currently posted online in The Lancet Neurology, will be
published in the May print edition of the journal.
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While other studies have shown people with more
extensive social networks were at reduced risk of cognitive impairment,
the study by Dr. David A. Bennett, and his colleagues from the Rush
Alzheimer's Disease Center, is the first to examine the relations
between social networks and Alzheimer’s disease pathology.
Researchers studied elderly people without known
dementia who are participating in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, an
epidemiological and clinicopathological study of aging and Alzheimer's
disease that involves over 1,100 volunteers across northeastern
Illinois. Brain autopsy was done at the time of death and post mortem
data was available for analysis from the first 89 people.
"Many elderly people who have the tangles and
plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease don't clinically experience
cognitive impairment or dementia," said Bennett. "Our findings suggest
that social networks are related to something that offers a 'protective
reserve' capacity that spares them the clinical manifestations of
Alzheimer's disease."
Participants in the study underwent clinical
evaluations and 21 cognitive performance tests each year. To determine
social network, participants were asked about the number of children
they have and see monthly. They were asked about the number of
relatives, excluding spouse and children, and friends to whom they feel
close and with whom they felt at ease and could talk to about private
matters and could call upon for help. They were asked to specify how
many of these people they see monthly. Their social network was the
number of these individuals seen at least once per month.
The relationship between the amount of Alzheimer’s
disease pathology and cognitive performance changed with the size of the
social network. As the size of the social network increased, the same
amount of pathology had less effect on cognitive test scores. In other
words, for persons without much pathology, social network size had
little effect on cognition. However, as the amount of pathology
increased, the apparent protective effect on cognition also increased.
Thus, social network size appears to have offered a protective reserve
capacity despite the fact that their brains had the tangles and plaques
indicative of Alzheimer's disease.
The effect was evident across different kinds of
cognitive abilities, but was most evident for semantic memory, which is
the repository of knowledge about the world and is fundamentally
involved in unique human cognitive processes such as language. The
results were unchanged after controlling for cognitive, physical, and
social activities, depressive symptoms, or number of chronic diseases.
"Identifying factors associated with the ability to
tolerate the pathology of Alzheimer's disease has important implications
for disease prevention," said Bennett. "Previous studies suggest one
factor is education. Now we know that healthy and frequent interactions
with friends and family have a positive impact as well."
The researchers say they are extremely grateful for the
remarkable dedication and altruism of the volunteers participating in
the Rush Memory and Aging Project. The research was supported by grants
from the National Institutes on Aging, which leads the Federal effort to
support and conduct basic, clinical, and social and behavioral studies
on aging and on Alzheimer's disease.
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