Social relationships and risk of dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal cohort studies

• Social relationships and risk of dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal cohort studies.
• We conducted a systematic literature review in MEDLINE, Embase and PsycINFO.
• We included 19 longitudinal cohort studies in the systematic review & meta-analysis.
• We examined the association between social relationships and incident dementia.
• A lack of social interaction is associated with incident dementia.
• The results are comparable with other well-established risk factors for dementia.

It is unclear to what extent poor social relationships are related to the development of dementia. A comprehensive systematic literature search identified 19 longitudinal cohort studies investigating the association between various social relationship factors and incident dementia in the general population. Relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Low social participation (RR: 1.41 (95% CI: 1.13–1.75)), less frequent social contact (RR: 1.57 (95% CI: 1.32–1.85)), and more loneliness (RR: 1.58 (95% CI: 1.19–2.09)) were statistically significant associated with incident dementia. The results of the association between social network size and dementia were inconsistent. No statistically significant association was found for low satisfaction with social network and the onset of dementia (RR: 1.25 (95% CI: 0.96–1.62). We conclude that social relationship factors that represent a lack of social interaction are associated with incident dementia. The strength of the associations between poor social interaction and incident dementia is comparable with other well-established risk factors for dementia, including low education attainment, physical inactivity, and late-life depression.