Myers, J.A.C., Stafford, T., Koychev, I. et al. (3 more authors) (2025) Loneliness, social isolation, and effects on cognitive decline in patients with dementia: A retrospective cohort study using natural language processing. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, 17 (3). e70149. ISSN: 2352-8729
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
The study aimed to compare cognitive trajectories between patients with reports of social isolation and loneliness and those without.
METHODS
Reports of social isolation, loneliness, and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores were extracted from dementia patients' medical records using natural language processing models and analyed using mixed-effects models.
RESULTS
Lonely patients (n = 382), compared to controls (n = 3912), showed an average MoCA score that was 0.83 points lower at diagnosis (P = 0.008) and throughout the disease. Socially isolated patients (n = 523) experienced a 0.21 MoCA point per year faster rate of cognitive decline in the 6 months before diagnosis (P = 0.029), but were comparable to controls before this period. This led to average MoCA scores that were 0.69 MoCA points lower at diagnosis (P = 0.011).
DISCUSSION
Lower cognitive levels in lonely and socially isolated patients suggest that these factors may contribute to dementia progression.
Highlights
Developed Natural Language Processing model to detect social isolation and loneliness in electronic health records.
Patients with loneliness reports have lower Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores than other patients.
Social isolation was related to the faster decline in MoCA scores before diagnosis.
Social isolation and loneliness are promising targets for slowing cognitive decline.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring published by Wiley Periodicals, LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | cognitive decline; electronic health records; loneliness; natural language processing; social isolation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jul 2025 11:35 |
Last Modified: | 04 Aug 2025 08:22 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/dad2.70149 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:228536 |