14 Thursday February 3 2022 | the times
News
Older women who are socially isolated
or lonely are more likely to develop
heart disease, a study has found.
Researchers discovered that the risk
was 13 to 27 per cent higher for such
women compared with those reporting
low levels of isolation and loneliness.
“We are social beings. In this time of
Covid-19 many people are experienc-
ing social isolation and loneliness,
which may spiral into chronic states,”
said Natalie Golaszewski of the Uni-
versity of California San Diego, lead
author of the study published in the
journal JAMA Network Open.
The study involved almost 58,
American women aged 65 to 99. They
filled in questionnaires in 2011-12 and
2014-15, and were followed until 2019,
during which time 1,600 developed
cardiovascular disease. The chance of
developing heart disease was 18 per
cent higher for women who reported
high levels of social isolation, compared
with those with low levels. AmongHeart disease risk greater
for lonely older women
women with high levels of loneliness,
the risk was 14 per cent higher.
Even after adjusting for factors in-
cluding age, race, educational level and
depression, as well as health behaviour,
the women with higher scores on meas-
ures of social isolation and loneliness
appeared at higher risk.
John Bellettiere, a senior author of
the report, said social isolation and
loneliness often occurred together but
could also be independent. “Social iso-
lation is about physically being away
from people, like not touching or seeing
or talking to other people. Loneliness is
a feeling, one that can be experienced
even by people who are regularly in
contact with others,” he said.
Researchers believe social isolation
and loneliness could be linked to heart
problems because people may adopt
less healthy behaviour when not
around others. The factors have also
been shown to cause “chronic stress”,
which can disturb systems in the body
such as blood pressure control or cause
inflammation, damaging blood vessels.Kat Lay Health EditorWALES NEWS SERVICEDementia ‘twice
as likely’ after two
chronic illnesses
People who suffer two or more chronic
health problems in middle age are more
than twice as likely to develop demen-
tia, according to research.
Illnesses including heart disease,
high blood pressure, diabetes, heart
failure, depression, liver disease, stroke
and arthritis may affect the risk of men-
tal decline.
The researchers said that inflamma-
tion in the body caused by the other
conditions could be behind the effect,
while the impact of drugs taken to con-
trol the illnesses might also play a role.
The study, published in the BMJ,
found the risk was greater when the
chronic condition developed in some-
one’s mid-50s rather than when they
were diagnosed later. Having two or
more conditions at age 55 raised some-
one’s risk of developing dementia al-
most two and a half times, compared
with someone who had none.
Developing two or more conditions
between 60 and 65 was linked to a
1.5-fold higher risk. Every five-year
decrease in age onset for the conditions
— up to the age 70 — also pushed the
risk of dementia up by 18 per cent.
The more severe the illnesses, the
stronger the link appeared. For those
with three or more chronic conditions
aged 55, there was about a fivefold
higher risk of dementia.
The researchers, including from Uni-
versity College London (UCL), said:
“Given the lack of effective treatment
for dementia and its personal and socie-
tal implications, finding targets for pre-
vention of dementia is imperative.
“These findings highlight the role of
prevention and management of chron-
ic diseases over the course of adulthood
to mitigate adverse outcomes in old
age.” The research is based on 10,
British men and women taking part in
the Whitehall II study. At age 55, 7 per
cent had two or more conditions, rising
to 32 per cent at age 70.
All the people in the research were
aged 35 to 55 at the start of the White-hall II Study (from 1985 to 1988). Over-
all, 639 cases of dementia occurred over
a typical 32-year follow-up.
The study is observational and so
cannot prove a causal relationship
between having multiple conditions
and developing dementia. However,
the authors said there were a number of
reasons to think a causal relationship
plausible, with different mechanisms
for different diseases.
They added there were also likely to
be “cumulative effects of clustering of
chronic diseases, accelerating cognitive
decline and increasing the risk of de-
mentia”. Inflammatory processes could
also play a role, “as inflammation is a
risk factor for many chronic conditions
and dementia”.
The researchers added: “Interactions
between and/or accumulation of drugs
prescribed to treat individual chronic
conditions have also been suggested to
affect cognitive ageing and the inci-
dence of dementia.”
Professor Paul Morgan of the UK
Dementia Research Institute Cardiff,
Cardiff University, said the study’s con-
clusions had been anticipated by a
number of previous smaller studies. But
he said the list of conditions that ap-
peared to raise the risk of dementia was
“rather surprising” because it included
not only those well known to foreshad-
ow dementia, such as Parkinson’s dis-
ease “but also other neurological and
neuropsychiatric disorders linked to
neuroinflammation”.
He added: “The findings add further
support to the proposed role of chronic
inflammation as a risk factor for de-
mentia, debated for more than 50 years
but now with solid traction in the field.
“There is abundant evidence that
sustained systemic or central inflam-
mation can cause or accelerate neuro-
degeneration and anti-inflammatory
drugs have been suggested as interven-
tions. So, as well as aggressively treating
the underlying diseases, dampening in-
flammation in those with multimorbid-
ities might prevent or delay dementia
onset.”Kat Lay Health EditorFed up Hungry mountain
goats have devoured
hedges and ruined gardens
after wandering into
Llandudno, north Wales