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Social Integration Can Help Preserve Memory
August 7, 2008
In a 6-year “Health and Retirement Study”, researchers found that social integration helped delay the memory decline which is usually associated with old age. 16,638 Americans participated in the study, which measured memory by immediate and delayed recall of a ten word list.
Social integration was assessed by marital status, volunteer activity, frequency of contact with children, frequency of contact with parents, and frequency of contact with neighbors. People with high social integration produced the least decline in their memory, while those least socially integrated had twice the rate of memory decline during the 6 year period. Results from this study, which was conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, were reported in the American Journal of Public Health.
Topics: Health News