Loneliness and Dementia

Elderly folk that experience loneliness tend to be more at risk of developing dementia later on in life, a group of researchers is now saying. The study was published online and looks at feelings of loneliness as opposed to being physically isolated. The researchers found that:

About 2,000 senior citizens free from dementia were tracked over the course of three years. At the end of the three year study, the mental health of all participants was evaluated. Several survey questions were asked to help track mood and mental health changes. At the end of the questions, a formal dementia test was administered in order to get as accurate of a picture as possible.

The researchers here wanted to track depression, dementia, and unusually high death rates amongst senior citizens. Their findings were quite surprising. One in ten of the elderly folk that lived alone developed some form of dementia. Compare this to the one in twenty that developed dementia when living with other people. This means that people that lived alone were about twice as likely to get dementia. Feelings of loneliness exacerbated this. People who felt lonely were about twice more likely to get dementia than people who were not lonely-regardless of the living situation they found themselves in.

The living conditions or the social support systems didn't seem to have as significant of an impact as the actual mood behind everything. If someone felt lonely, they were more apt to develop dementia regardless of where they lived, whether they were married, or who they lived with. The feelings behind everything were what mattered the most.

The big thing that seems to be implied here, if these researchers are correct, is that loneliness might be able to be alleviated, and thus some cases of dementia might be prevented. There is no hard evidence to support this implication yet, but this is a serious question that absolutely needs to be addressed within future research studies.

Can assisted living help solve this problem? The answer isn't quite as easy as yes or no. If the feelings of loneliness can be erased in such a setting, perhaps some instances of dementia can be avoided. But if the person still feels alone, regardless of whether or not they are around people that like them and care about them, even being in an assisted living facility will not be of any help, this study seems to say. Still, with assisted living, the chances of decreasing the amount loneliness experienced are much better. If someone lives alone and is lonely, moving into assisted living probably won't hurt them, and it makes the odds of erasing loneliness just a little bit better. This is something that definitely needs to be considered.