Open AccessDual Trajectories of Social Isolation and Dementia in Older Adults: A Population-Based Longitudinal Study
Author(s) -
Xiaoling Xiang,
Patrick Ho Lam Lai,
Luoman Bao,
Yihang Sun,
Jieling Chen,
Ruth E. Dunkle,
Donovan T. Maust
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of aging and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.041
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1552-6887
pISSN - 0898-2643
DOI - 10.1177/0898264320953693
Subject(s) - dementia , social isolation , gerontology , longitudinal study , isolation (microbiology) , psychology , demography , medicine , population , psychiatry , disease , sociology , biology , pathology , microbiology and biotechnology
Objectives: To identify the interrelations between the trajectories of social isolation and dementia in older adults. Methods: Data came from the National Health and Aging Trends Study 2011-2018 surveys. Group-based dual trajectory modeling was used to examine trajectories and their interrelations. Results: Four trajectories of social isolation-rarely isolated (62.2%), steady increase (13.5%), steady decrease (7.4%), and persistently isolated (16.9%) and dementia risk-persistently low risk (80.4%), increasing with early onset (3.9%), increasing with late onset (4.5%), and persistently high risk (11.2%) emerged. Two-thirds of the low-risk dementia group were in the rarely isolated group. The high-risk dementia group had the most overlap with the decreasing social isolation group (47%), followed by the persistently isolated group (28%). Conclusions: Social isolation and dementia mostly evolved in the same direction. However, the pattern of associations between these trajectories is intricate and may be reversed among long-term dementia survivors.