Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T07:21:01.688Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Loneliness interacts with family relationship in relation to cognitive function in Chinese older adults

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2018

Ada W. T. Fung Open the ORCID record for Ada W. T. Fung [Opens in a new window] ,
Allen T. C. Lee ,
S.-T. Cheng  and
Linda C. W. Lam
Ada W. T. Fung*
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Allen T. C. Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
S.-T. Cheng
Affiliation:
Department of Health and Physical Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Linda C. W. Lam
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Ada Wai Tung Fung, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HJ 422, 4/F, Core J, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR, China. Phone: 1-852-2766-5744; Fax: 1-852-2773-6558. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives:

Loneliness and social networks have been extensively studied in relation to cognitive impairments, but how they interact with each other in relation to cognition is still unclear. This study aimed at exploring the interaction of loneliness and various types of social networks in relation to cognition in older adults.

Design:

a cross-sectional study.

Setting:

face-to-face interview.

Participants:

497 older adults with normal global cognition were interviewed.

Measurements:

Loneliness was assessed with Chinese 6-item De Jong Gierverg’s Loneliness Scale. Confiding network was defined as people who could share inner feelings with, whereas non-confiding network was computed by subtracting the confiding network from the total network size. Cognitive performance was expressed as a global composite z-score of Cantonese version of mini mental state examination (CMMSE), Categorical verbal fluency test (CVFT) and delayed recall. Linear regression was used to test the main effects of loneliness and the size of various networks, and their interaction on cognitive performance with the adjustment of sociodemographic, physical and psychological confounders.

Results:

Significant interaction was found between loneliness and non-confiding network on cognitive performance (B = .002, β = .092, t = 2.099, p = .036). Further analysis showed a significant interaction between loneliness and the number of family members in non-confiding network on cognition (B = .021, β = .119, t = 2.775, p = .006).

Conclusions:

Results suggested that a non-confiding relationship with family members might put lonely older adults at risk of cognitive impairment. Our study might have implications on designing psychosocial intervention for those who are vulnerable to loneliness as an early prevention of neurocognitive impairments.

Keywords

lonelinesssocial networkclose tiefamily estrangementconfidante relationshipscognitive impairmentdementiaolder adults
Type
Original Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 31 , Issue 4: Issue Theme: Aging and Well-Being , April 2019 , pp. 467 - 475
Copyright
© International Psychogeriatric Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bassuk, S. S., Glass, T. A. and Berkman, L. F. (1999). Social disengagement and incident cognitive decline in community-dwelling elderly persons. Annals of Internal Medicine, 131, 165–173. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-131-3-199908030-00002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bennett, D. A., Schneider, J. A., Tang, Y., Arnold, S. E. and Wilson, R. S. (2006). The effect of social networks on the relation between Alzheimer’s disease pathology and level of cognitive function in old people: a longitudinal cohort study. Lancet Neurology, 5, 406–412. doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(06)70417-3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bickel, H. and Cooper, B. (1994). Incidence and relative risk of dementia in an urban elderly population: findings of a prospective field study. Psychological Medicine, 24, 179–192. doi: 10.1017/S0033291700026945.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiu, H. F. et al. (1997). The modified fuld verbal fluency test: a validation study in Hong Kong. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 52, P247–P250. doi: 10.1093/geronb/52B.5.P247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chiu, H. F., Lee, H., Chung, W. and Kwong, P. (1994). Reliability and validity of the Cantonese version of mini-mental state examination—A preliminary study. Journal of Hong Kong College of Psychiatry, 4, 25–28.Google Scholar
Crooks, V. C., Lubben, J., Petitti, D. B., Little, D. and Chiu, V. (2008). Social network, cognitive function, and dementia incidence among elderly women. American Journal of Public Health, 98, 1221–1227. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.115923.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donovan, N. J. et al. (2016). Association of Higher Cortical Amyloid Burden With Loneliness in Cognitively Normal Older Adults. JAMA Psychiatry, 73, 1230–1237. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.2657.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fratiglioni, L., Wang, H. X., Ericsson, K., Maytan, M. and Winblad, B. (2000). Influence of social network on occurrence of dementia: a community-based longitudinal study. Lancet, 355, 1315–1319. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)02113-9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the big five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26–42. doi: 10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, L. R. et al. (2006). The international personality item pool and the future of public-domain personality measures. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 84–96. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Håkansson, K. et al. (2009). Association between mid-life marital status and cognitive function in later life: population based cohort study. BMJ, 339, b2462. doi: 10.1136/bmj.b2462.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holwerda, T. J. et al. (2014). Feelings of loneliness, but not social isolation, predict dementia onset: results from the Amsterdam Study of the Elderly (AMSTEL). Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 85, 135–142. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2012-302755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lam, L. C. et al. (2008). Prevalence of very mild and mild dementia in community-dwelling older Chinese people in Hong Kong. International Psychogeriatric, 20, 135–48. doi: 10.1017/S1041610207006199.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leung, G. T., De Jong Gierveld, J. and Lam, L. C. (2008). Validation of the Chinese translation of the 6-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale in elderly Chinese. International Psychogeriatric, 20, 1262–1272. doi: 10.1017/S1041610208007552.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, G., Pelosi, A. J., Araya, R. and Dunn, G. (1992). Measuring psychiatric disorder in the community: a standardized assessment for use by lay interviewers. Psychological Medicine, 22, 465–486. doi: 10.1017/S0033291700030415.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luo, Y. and Waite, L. J. (2014). Loneliness and mortality among older adults in China. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 69, 633–645. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbu007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mchugh, J. E., Kenny, R. A., Lawlor, B. A., Steptoe, A. and Kee, F. (2016). The discrepancy between social isolation and loneliness as a clinically meaningful metric: findings from the Irish and English longitudinal studies of ageing (TILDA and ELSA). International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 32, 664–674. doi: 10.1002/gps.4509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, J. C. (1997). Clinical dementia rating: a reliable and valid diagnostic and staging measure for dementia of the Alzheimer type. International Psychogeriatric, 9 (Suppl 1), 173–176; discussion 177–178. doi: 10.1017/S1041610297004870.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parmelee, P. A., Thuras, P. D., Katz, I. R. and Lawton, M. P. (1995). Validation of the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale in a geriatric residential population. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 43, 130–137. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1995.tb06377.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perlman, D. and Peplau, L. (1981). Toward a social psychology of loneliness. In: Gilmour, R. and Duck, S. (eds.), Personal Relationships 3: Personal Relationships in Disorder. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Pillai, J. A. and Verghese, J. (2009). Social networks and their role in preventing dementia. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 51 (Supp 1), 22–28.Google ScholarPubMed
Saczynski, J. S. et al. (2006). The effect of social engagement on incident dementia: the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 163, 433–440. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwj061.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Savikko, N., Routasalo, P., Tilvis, R. S., Strandberg, T. E. and Pitkala, K. H. (2005). Predictors and subjective causes of loneliness in an aged population. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 41, 223–233. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2005.03.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeman, T. E., Lusignolo, T. M., Albert, M. and Berkman, L. (2001). Social relationships, social support, and patterns of cognitive aging in healthy, high-functioning older adults: MacArthur studies of successful aging. Health Psychology, 20, 243–255. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.20.4.243.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shankar, A., Hamer, M., Mcmunn, A. and Steptoe, A. (2013). Social isolation and loneliness: relationships with cognitive function during 4 years of follow-up in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Psychosomatic Medicine, 75, 161–170. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0b013e31827f09cd.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steptoe, A., Shankar, A., Demakakos, P. and Wardle, J. (2013). Social isolation, loneliness, and all-cause mortality in older men and women. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110, 5797–5801. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1219686110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tilvis, R. S., Kahonen-Vare, M. H., Jolkkonen, J., Valvanne, J., Pitkala, K. H. and Strandberg, T. E. (2004). Predictors of cognitive decline and mortality of aged people over a 10-year period. Journals of Gerontology. Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 59, M268–M274. doi: 10.1093/gerona/59.3.M268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, R. S. et al. (2007). Loneliness and risk of Alzheimer disease. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64, 234–40. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.64.2.234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wong, C., Leung, G., Fung, A., Chan, W. and Lam, L. (2013). Cognitive predictors for five-year conversion to dementia in community-dwelling Chinese older adults. International Psychogeriatrics, 25, 1125–1134. doi: 10.1017/S1041610213000161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yang, K. and Victor, C. R. (2008). The prevalence of and risk factors for loneliness among older people in China. Ageing and Society, 28, 305–327. doi: 10.1017/S0144686X07006848.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeh, S.-C. J. and Liu, Y.-Y. (2003). Influence of social support on cognitive function in the elderly. BMC Health Services Research, 3, 9. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-3-9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yoshitake, T. et al. (1995). Incidence and risk factors of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in a defined elderly Japanese population: the Hisayama Study. Neurology, 45, 1161–1168. doi: 10.1212/WNL.45.6.1161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, J., Lam, C. L. and Lee, T. M. (2016). Perceived loneliness among older adults with mild cognitive impairment. International Psychogeriatrics, 28, 1681–1685. doi: 10.1017/S1041610216000430.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhong, B. L., Chen, S. L., Tu, X. and Conwell, Y. (2017). Loneliness and cognitive function in older adults: Findings from the Chinese longitudinal healthy longevity survey. Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 72, 120–128. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbw037.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed