The Association Between Social Isolation and Memory Loss Among Older Adults

David M. Mosen; Matthew P. Banegas; Erin M. Keast; Briar L. Ertz-Berger

doi:10.3122/jabfm.2022.210497R2

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Table 1.

Population Characteristics of Study Population¹

	Social Isolation
	Never/Rarely	Sometimes	Often/Always	All
	n = 36,048 (78.0%)	n = 7791 (16.8%)	n = 2401 (5.2%)	n = 46,240 (100.0%)
	mean ± SD, N (%)	Mean ± SD, N (%)	Mean ± SD, N (%)	Mean ± SD, N (%)
Age (mean, standard deviation)	73.1 ± 7.8	73.6 ± 9.1	73.0 ± 10.6	73.2 ± 8.2
Female	19,474 (54.0)	4918 (63.1)	1587 (66.1)	25,979 (56.2)
Race/Ethnicity
White	32,709 (90.7)	6945 (89.1)	2136 (89.0)	41,790 (90.4)
Black/African-American	478 (1.3)	132 (1.7)	38 (1.6)	648 (1.4)
Hispanic/Latinx	786 (2.2)	223 (2.9)	83 (3.5)	1092 (2.4)
Asian-American	820 (2.3)	165 (2.1)	36 (1.5)	1021 (2.2)
Native American/Alaska Native	47 (0.1)	10 (0.1)	7 (0.3)	64 (0.1)
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	37 (0.1)	11 (0.1)	3 (0.1)	51 (0.1)
More than one race	991 (2.8)	254 (3.3)	81 (3.4)	1326 (2.9)
Unknown/other	180 (0.5)	51 (0.7)	17 (0.7)	248 (0.5)
Area Deprivation Index (ADI)
1 to 3 (least disadvantaged)	13,683 (38.0)	2613 (33.5)	725 (30.2)	17,021 (36.8)
4 to 6	12,190 (33.8)	2618 (33.6)	799 (33.3)	15,607 (33.8)
7 to 10 (most disadvantaged)	9591 (26.6)	2442 (31.3)	847 (35.3)	12,880 (27.9)
Unknown	584 (1.6)	118 (1.5)	30 (1.3)	732 (1.6)
Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI)
0	19,066 (52.9)	3504 (45.0)	858 (35.7)	23,428 (50.7)
1	5510 (15.3)	1241 (15.9)	412 (17.2)	7163 (15.5)
2+	11,472 (31.8)	3046 (39.1)	1131 (47.1)	15,649 (33.8)
1+ hospital admissions	3717 (10.3)	1141 (14.6)	500 (20.8)	5358 (11.6)
1+ ED visits	6921 (19.2)	2144 (27.5)	945 (39.4)	10,010 (21.6)
1+ primary care visits	28,342 (78.6)	6438 (82.6)	2070 (86.2)	36,850 (79.7)
COVID-19 Era
3/1/2013-2/28/2020: Before Pandemic Era	34,102 (94.6)	7196 (92.4)	2173 (90.5)	43,471 (94.0)
3/1/2020-2/28/2021: During Pandemic Era	1946 (5.4)	595 (7.6)	228 (9.5)	2769 (6.0)

Abbreviations: ED, Emergency department; SD, Standard deviation.
↵1 Results based on 46,240 Medicare members (aged 65 years or older) of Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW) who completed an index Medicare Total Health Assessment (MTHA) survey between 3/1/2013 and 2/28/2021 (8 years) and had continuous KPNW Medicare insurance coverage in the 12 months before survey completion.

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Table 2.

Logistic Regression Results: Association of Social Isolation with Memory Loss. Unadjusted and Adjusted for Covariates

	Memory Loss (vs. no Memory Loss)
Total Population (Unadjusted for Study Covariates)¹^,²	OR (Unadjusted)	95% CI		p-value
Social Isolation
Never/Rarely	Reference
Sometimes	*2.56*	*2.42*	*2.70*	*0.0076*
Often/Always	*5.50*	*5.06*	*5.99*	*<0.0001*

Total Population (Adjusted for Study Covariates)¹^,³^,⁴	Memory Loss (vs. no Memory Loss)
Total Population (Adjusted for Study Covariates)¹^,³^,⁴	OR (Adjusted)¹	95% CI		p-value
Social Isolation
Never/Rarely	Reference
Sometimes	*2.45*	*2.32*	*2.60*	*0.0298*
Often/Always	*5.20*	*4.75*	*5.68*	*<0.0001*

Abbreviations: ED, Emergency department; SD, Standard deviation; OR, Odds ratio; CI, Confidence interval.
↵1 Results based on 46,240 Medicare members (aged 65 years or older) of Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW) who completed an index Medicare Total Heath Assessment (MTHA) survey between 3/1/2013 and 2/28/2021 (8 years) and had continuous KPNW Medicare insurance coverage in the 12 months before survey completion. Significant results are displayed in bold, italicized font. ²C-statistic, unadjusted for study covariates = 0.615.
↵3 Model adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, Area Deprivation Index (ADI), Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), prior hospital admissions, ED visits, primary care visits and COVID-19 Era. ⁴C-statistic, adjusted for study covariates = 0.696.