Scientists have assessed the role of communication in memory preservation in pensioners
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- Scientists have assessed the role of communication in memory preservation in pensioners
Social connections can compensate for the decline in cognitive stimulation that occurs in retirement. Scientists from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) came to this conclusion after examining data from 27 European countries. At the same time, men and women are helped by different types of communication. This was reported on June 9 in the journal Medical Xpress.
"A strong social network seems to mitigate cognitive loss when quitting a job, but the pattern clearly depends on gender. For women, the diversity of contacts seems to compensate for the lost work incentives. For men, close personal relationships are especially important — often with a spouse or partner," said Thomas Arnhold, lead author and IIASA researcher.
The work uses data from the European Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement (SHARE) — more than 145 thousand observations from 27 countries for 2011-2020. The researchers compared working, retired, unemployed, and housewives over the age of 50 and assessed the relationship between different levels of social inclusion and two indicators: episodic memory and verbal fluency.
The situation of elderly men without jobs and without any social environment was of particular concern: they had the lowest rates of episodic memory.
According to the study's co-author, Valeria Bordone, a professor of sociology at the University of Vienna, programs for older women should help build and maintain a variety of social networks, while for men, the priority should be to prevent social isolation and maintain close relationships.
As the European population ages, maintaining cognitive health is becoming one of the key tasks of public health. Previously, it was known that both employment and social connections are individually associated with better cognitive functioning, but there was very little data on their interaction and gender differences.
On February 10, Medical Xpress talked about the benefits of laughter for heart health. According to the publication, it is able to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The scientists also emphasized that accepting happiness and laughter is good not only for the heart, but also for overall health.
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