Loneliness one of biggest risks for developing dementia, study reveals

The research found that loneliness appears to predict future dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and cognitive impairment.

Loneliness is one of the biggest risks for developing dementia, a new groundbreaking study involving University of Limerick (UL) researchers has revealed.

The international research, which involved more than 600,000 people, found that feeling lonely increases the risk for dementia by 31% and for cognitive impairment by 15%.

The paper A Meta-analysis of Loneliness and Risk of Dementia using Longitudinal Data from 600,000 Individuals, has been published by the Nature Mental Health journal.

The study, which was led by Dr Martina Luchetti from the College of Medicine at Florida State University involved Dr Páraic S Ó Súilleabháin, an associate professor of psychology at UL’s department of psychology.

It found that loneliness appears to predict future dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and cognitive impairment.

The study involved 608,561 people from around the world who were followed over time, and researchers “reviewed all existing literature and included new longitudinal data spanning several continents”.

Dr Ó Súilleabháin, said: “These are very important findings and indicate that loneliness is a critically important risk factor in the future development of dementia.

“It provides a solid basis for future intervention work and adds to other research we have conducted examining the effect of loneliness on future health.

This is a groundbreaking piece of research that will have significant impact.

Dr Ó Súilleabháin, who is also director of the Personality, Individual Differences and Biobehavioural Health Laboratory and member of the Health Research Institute at UL, explained: “Our laboratory has found that loneliness is critical to future health in a variety of different ways, including our longevity — ie how long we live. 

"This huge and incredibly thorough study now adds a huge piece of the puzzle why this is the case.

“That is, loneliness is critically important for cognitive health, in that, loneliness leads to the future development of, dementia, vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and more general cognitive impairment. 

"This is a very important piece of research which will have far reaching consequences.” 

Lead author Dr Luchetti explained: “There are different types and sources of loneliness that can affect cognitive symptoms across the dementia continuum. 

"Addressing loneliness, promoting a feeling of connectedness, could be protective for cognitive health in later life.” 

The report comes just two months after a paper published here showed one in 10 of the 8,000 people studied showed serious signs of depression and 4% had felt they would rather be dead during the month before being interviewed.