Medscape (6/8, Burton, Subscription Publication) reports, “Social isolation is associated with a significantly increased risk of dementia in older people,” investigators concluded after examining “data from the UK Biobank from 462,619 people from across the” UK. The study revealed that “individuals who reported feeling socially isolated had worse cognitive function at baseline than those who did not report social isolation and were 26% more likely to have dementia at follow-up.” What’s more, magnetic resonance imaging “scans conducted nearly nine years after study enrollment also showed that those who reported feeling socially isolated had lower gray matter volume…in areas of the brain linked to learning and memory.” The findingswere published online in the journal Neurology.
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