Feeling lonely impacts memory without accelerating mental decline

Loneliness affects the memory of older adults but does not speed up mental decline over time, suggests data from a major European study tracking more than 10,000 people over seven years.Participants who reported high levels of loneliness performed worse on memory tests at the start of the research period. However, the ability of lonely people to recall information declined at a similar rate over the timecourse monitored as that of participants who did not feel alone.The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Aging & Mental Health, come from an analysis of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) study, whichsurveyed 10,217 people, aged 65 to 94, from 12 countries across the continent.Loneliness has become a significant public health issue due to its impact on longevity, mental and physical health, and wellbeing.These results add further weight to the strong links between feeling lonely and brain function in older people, while reinforcing the theory that isolation is not necessarily a risk factor for dementia.Regular loneliness screening could be included in checks to test mental abilities in older adults, suggest the authors who are from the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia, the Clínica Universitaria de Navarra and Universitat de Valencia in Spain, and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. They add that this approach could be one of several strategies that health professionals could develop to promote optimal aging.

The finding that loneliness significantly impacted memory, but not the speed of decline in memory over time was a surprising outcome.

It suggests that loneliness may play a more prominent role in the initial state of memory than in its progressive decline.The study underscores the importance of addressing loneliness as a significant factor in the context of cognitive performance in older adults."

Dr. Luis Carlos Venegas-Sanabria, lead author from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario