AI Summary
Loneliness and social isolation in older adults are serious public health risks, associated with negative health outcomes such as premature mortality, heart disease, depression, and cognitive decline. Studies have shown that social isolation is linked to brain atrophy and changes in brain volume. Summary unavailable.
Loneliness and social isolation, or a lack of social contact with others, are serious public health risks, especially in older adults. A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report found that more than one-fourth of adults older than 65 years are socially isolated.1 Social isolation has been associated with a variety of negative health outcomes including premature mortality, increased risk of coronary heart disease and stroke, increased reporting of depressive symptoms, and increased dementia risk and cognitive decline.1 Large-scale population-based studies have begun to investigate the link between social health and brain atrophy, using MRI metrics, and findings have shown that loneliness or social isolation is associated with lower total brain volume, greater white matter lesion volume, and specific regional changes in grey matter volumes.2,3 Even perceptions of social support have been shown to be associated with smaller changes in total brain volume over time.4