Relationship between loneliness and cognitive impairment in community-dwelling elderly in Wuhan / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To examine the impact of loneliness on cognitive impairment among community-dwelling elderly people.Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted between July and August 2015 with 895 community-dwelling elderly participants in four residential areas of Wuchang District,Wuhan.The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was used to measure cognitive function.Chi square test,t-test,and multivariate linear regression were used to analyze the data.Results Multivariate linear analysis showed that loneliness was independently and negatively associated with cognitive function among the participants (β=-1.2828,95％ CI-2.27--0.30).Participants who felt loneliness recorded lower scores on visuospatial executive,attention,and language ability than those who did not (P＜0.05).Multivariate logistic analysis demonstrated that loneliness was also associated with cognitive function after adjustment for age and gender,with OR (95 ％CI) at 1.74(1.05 2.91) / 1.78 (1.07 2.94).Loneliness remained an independent risk factor for cognitive dysfunction after adjustment for age,gender,education level,monthly income,living arrangement,physical activity,mental activity,hypertension,diabetes,frequency of social interaction,and type of social interaction,with OR (95％CI) at 1.69(1.002.87) / 1.72(1.022.90).Conclusions Loneliness is a significant and independent impact factor for cognitive dysfunction among community dwelling elders.