Effect of social isolation and loneliness on functional abilities mediated by cognition (E‐cog) in Mexican older adults during the first wave of COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundLoneliness and social isolation are known risk factors for cognitive decline; their effect in older adults (OA) after COVID‐19 lockdown is emerging.ObjectiveTo establish an association between loneliness with functional abilities mediated by cognition in Mexican OA during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic.MethodCross‐sectional study derived from the cohort “The impact of COVID 19 on well‐being, cognition, and discrimination among older adults in the United States and Latin America”, which included 308 older adults recruited between March‐August 2020 whose cognition‐mediated functional abilities were determined with the Everyday Cognition Scale (E‐Cog) questionnaire. The presence of loneliness (The De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale) was a binomial variable. Univariate linear regression models were constructed to determine the association between loneliness, and E‐Cog (Ln) scores, which were later adjusted for potentially confounding variables like age and education. In addition, participants were categorized into tertiles of the global E‐Cog score with the following ranges: Tertile 1 (T1): 37.46 ‐46; Tertile 2 (T2): 46.01‐58 and Tertile 3 (T3): 58.01 or more and were compared using ANCOVA. Satistical analyses were conducted using SPSS version 25.0 for MAC (Chicago, IL, USA), figures were made with RStudio (R version 4.1.0, RStudio, Inc., Boston, MA)ResultThe mean age was 65.4 ± 7.9 years and 75.7% were women. The mean E‐Cog was 57.4 (SD: ± 19.1). 84% of participants (n:259) had loneliness. Those with less perception of loneliness had a better performance on E‐Cog by tertiles. The univariate linear model showed a positive and statistically significant association between loneliness and E‐Cog, adjusted by age, sex and education level (β 0.41, 95% CI: 0.22‐0.38, p: <0.01). This model explained 16.1% of the variability of the E‐Cog score.ConclusionOA with self‐reported loneliness had the worst performance in functional abilities mediated by cognition. These data suggest the need for increased vigilance of those who have loneliness due to its potential deleterious effect on cognitive function.