Social capital and cognitive decline: Does sleep duration mediate the association?

Studies have found that social capital (SC) is associated with the risk of cognitive decline; however, the mechanism explaining how SC leads to cognitive decline is unclear. The current study examines the mediation effect of sleep duration on the relationship between SC and cognitive decline in Chinese older adults.

A cross-sectional study of 955 community-dwelling aged 60 or over was conducted. The mini-mental state examination (MMSE), self-report sleep duration questionnaire, and social capital scales were administered during the face-to-face survey. The Bootstrap methods PROCESS program is employed to test the mediation model.

After controlling for covariates, both social cohesion and social interaction were positively correlated with the MMSE score (p<0.001), and social cohesion was negatively correlated with sleep duration (p = 0.009); On the contrary, sleep duration was negatively correlated with MMSE score (p<0.001). Linear regression analysis showed social cohesion was positively associated with the MMSE score (β = 0.16, p = 0.005), while sleep duration was associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline (β = -0.72, p<0.001). Sleep duration has mediated the relationship between social cohesion and cognitive decline (explaining 21.7% of the total variance).

Social capital negatively associated with the risk of cognitive decline in this Chinese population, and sleep duration may partly explain this relationship. It may be a suggestive clue to identify those at a higher risk of progressing to cognitive impairment. Further prospective study in need to confirm this finding due to the cross-sectional design.