You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Oral Presentations
Thursday 11 September 2014
Poster Session B
PP44 Impact of negative aspects of close relationships on cognitive ageing, the dark side of social relationships
  1. J Liao1,
  2. J Head1,
  3. M Kumari1,
  4. S Stansfeld2,
  5. A Singh-Manoux1,3,
  6. EJ Brunner1
  1. 1Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK
  2. 2Centre for Psychiatry, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts and Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  3. 3INSERM, U1018, Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, Hôpital Paul Brousse, Paris, France

Abstract

Background The extent to which social relationships influence cognitive ageing is unclear. This study investigates the impact of mid-lif quality of close relationships on cognitive decline, using multilevel modelling.

Methods Whitehall II study participants (n = 6495, aged 45–69 at baseline) provided cognitive assessments (executive function and memory) three times over 10 years. The quality of close relationships was assessed by the Close Persons Questionnaire.

Results Higher levels of adverse close relationships in mid-life were related to lower concurrent memory (-0.07; 95% CI: -0.12,-0.02 SD) and accelerated 10-year decline in executive function (-0.04; 95% CI: -0.07,-0.01 SD). Participants reporting higher cumulative negative aspects of close relationships experienced greater decline in executive function (-0.04; 95% CI: -0.07,-0.01 SD). Longitudinal analysis found no evidence of reverse causality.

Conclusion Adverse close relationships predict relatively rapid cognitive ageing. This study highlights the importance of differentiating aspects of social relationships to evaluate their unique health effects.

Keywords
  • ageing
  • social relationships
  • cognitive decline
  • longitudinal studies
  • epidemiology

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2014-204726.139

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Keywords