Pharmacy Daily | Social frailty link to dementia

NEW research led by the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) at the University of NSW has found that older adults experiencing social frailty face a significantly higher risk of developing dementia.

Social frailty is defined as a lack of social connections, resources and support to meet basic needs.

While physical frailty has been widely studied, the researchers pointed out that social frailty has received far less attention, despite being linked to higher rates of disability, cognitive decline and early death.

The team followed more than 850 Australians aged 70 and older over 12 years as participants in CHeBA's Sydney Memory and Ageing Study, a long-term study to show how specific tools to measure social frailty may predict the risk of developing dementia.

Over the 12-year follow-up period, 260 new cases of dementia were identified (30.6% of participants).

Those identified as being socially frail were up to 50% more likely to develop dementia, even after accounting for other factors such as physical and psychological frailty, the researchers found.

Low financial satisfaction emerged as a strong, independent predictor of dementia.

Co-author Dr Suraj Samtani said early identification of social frailty could lead to targeted support and interventions, such as social prescribing or community-based programs, to reduce dementia risk and improve overall wellbeing.

"We know that staying socially connected is vital for brain health, but what's missing in practice is a simple, evidence-based checklist that doctors can use in the clinic," Dr Samtani said.

"Our research shows that the social frailty index has real potential to fill that gap - helping [healthcare professionals] quickly identify older adults who are at higher risk, and giving families and clinicians the chance to act before dementia takes hold."

Jenny Kirschner of Pharmacy Addressing Loneliness and Social Isolation (PALS), told Pharmacy Daily that pharmacists are well-placed to help with social connection, potentially through social prescribing, highlighting measures discussed at last week's EACH25 conference (PD 02 Dec).

"Pharmacists could be educating patients on the protective effects of social connection, much like they would educate patients on the importance of eating well and participating in regular physical activity for optimal health outcomes," Kirschner said.

"Pharmacists could also include social health and social connection as key considerations when conducting a medications review - make it a 'business as usual' consideration," she added.

Read the paper HERE. KB