Loneliness and risk of all-cause, Alzheimer’s, vascular, and frontotemporal dementia: a prospective study of 492,322 individuals over 15 years
Angelina R. Sutin, Martina Luchetti, Damaris Aschwanden, Xianghe Zhu, Yannick Stéphan, Antonio Terracciano
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: This study examined the association between loneliness and risk of incident all-cause dementia and whether the association extends to specific causes of dementia. DESIGN: Longitudinal. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: = 492,322). INTERVENTION: None. MEASUREMENTS: Loneliness was measured with a standard item. The diagnosis of dementia was derived from health and death records, which included all-cause dementia and the specific diagnoses of Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VD), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), over 15 years of follow-up. RESULTS: ϵ4 risk status such that the increased risk was apparent in both groups but stronger among non-carriers than carriers of the risk allele. CONCLUSION: Loneliness is associated with increased risk of multiple types of dementia.