Family, friends may help seniors stave off dementia

In a 3-year study, elderly people who had few friends and family members -- or unsatisfying relationships with them -- were 60% more likely to develop dementia than people with a more supportive social network.

"The most obvious implication of this study will be the necessity to rethink all public health policy for the elderly," the study's lead author, Dr. Laura Fratiglioni, of the Stockholm Gerontology Research Centre in Sweden, said in a statement.

"For years, in most western countries, the priority has been given to home services in order to avoid institutionalisation," she said. "The consequences are often that old people live alone and isolated for most of the time."

In the study, Fratiglioni and her colleagues followed more than 1,200 elderly people who lived at home. At the start of the study, none of the participants showed any signs of dementia. Three years later, however, 176 people had developed dementia, in many cases the result of Alzheimer's disease.

The odds of developing dementia were higher in people who were single, who lived alone or who did not have many relatives and friends, the authors report in the April 15th issue of The Lancet.

This was true even after taking into account several factors that might have influenced the development of dementia, such as age, sex, education, and mental functioning at the start of the study. Elderly people who were single or who lived alone were almost twice as likely as married people to develop dementia.

But the quality -- not just the quantity -- of relationships appeared to make a difference in a person's risk of losing their mental faculties.

People who did not see their friends or family often, but who had satisfying relationships with them, did not have an increased risk of developing dementia, according to the report. In fact, people who saw their children often but did not get along well with them were much more likely to develop dementia than those who saw their children infrequently and did not have a satisfying relationship with them.

"The findings of our study suggest some possible preventive strategies against dementia," Fratiglioni told Reuters Health. "A rich social network might provide the emotional and intellectual stimulation which could delay the onset of the disease," she suggested.

"Public health policy should take into account such aspects in the organisation of the home services for the elderly," Fratiglioni noted.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Lisa F. Berkman, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, notes that it is unclear whether increasing a person's social interactions will delay the development of dementia. "Intervention in late life may not be optimum" because it may be too late to make a difference, according to Berkman.

"Nevertheless, as the science in this area advances, it is likely to reveal that many social policies related to retirement, work-family relations, and housing may profoundly influence the health and functioning of the fastest growing segment of population, the elderly," Berkman concludes.