The association between social support and cognitive function in Mexican adults aged 50 and older

Social support networks are crucial for the health of older adults; however, personal characteristics and time of life may diminish the protective effect of social support.

to determine if the presence of social support networks were associated with cognitive impairment among Mexican adults aged 50 or older and if this relationship was different based on age.

This study analyzed data from the National Representation Survey performed in Mexico, Study on Global Ageing (SAGE) wave 1. Cognitive function was evaluated by a standardized test, social support was evaluated through latent class analysis (LCA). The LCA was run to obtain three subgroups of different Social Support Levels (SSL): low, medium, and high. Logistic regression models, stratified by age, were performed to analyze the association between SSL and cognitive function.

For respondents ages 71-80 y/o, there was an inverse relationship with cognitive impairment for those with medium (OR 0.23, p=0.020) and high (OR 0.07, p=0.000) SSL in comparison with low SSL. While social support helped to improve cognitive function in older adults aged 71-80, this same association was not observed in adults of other ages. Those younger than 70 y/o may not need such a strong support network as a result of being more self-sufficient. After 80, social networks were not enough to help diminish the negative impact of cognitive impairment.

Social support could improve the cognitive function of adults ages 71 and 80; suggesting there could be a window of opportunity to improve cognitive functioning for this group.