Social Support and Cognition: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Although the influence of social support in health is a widely acknowledged factor, there is a significant gap in the understanding of its role on cognition. The purpose of this systematic review was, therefore, to determine the state-of-the-art on the literature testing the association between social support and cognition. Using six databases (WoS, PubMed, ProQuest, PsycINFO, Scopus and EBSCOhost), we identified 22 articles published between 1999 and 2019 involving an empirical quantitative focus which meet the inclusion criteria. Data extraction was performed following PRISMA recommendations. To summarize the extracted data, we used a narrative synthesis approach. Despite limitations, there is overall preliminary evidence of a relevant positive association between social support and cognition. Our results demonstrate there is enough information for an outbreak of experimental research in the area and an expansion of this body of knowledge. We argue that the present evidence lays the foundations for a more comprehensive theoretical model, one that corresponds with the complexity of the topic and possibly considers models derived from social interaction and active inference theories.

Keywords: cognition; cognitive functioning; cognitive performance; social interaction; social support.

Figure 1

Flow diagram based on PRISMA guidelines.

Figure 2

Histogram showing the frequency of articles on social support and cognition published during the period comprehended between 1999 and 2019. The textured area represents published articles on the topic while the black bars represents articles that met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and therefore were selected for the present review.

Figure 3

Flowchart representing methodological aspects of the selected studies; the frequency (Fr.) of each one of these aspects among the studies and the proportion (%) they represent within the total number of selected articles.

Figure 4

Flowchart representing the dimensions measured in both social support and cognition. The table on the left shows dimensions of cognition measured across the selected studies and the frequency with which each of them was tested across the studies (N). The table on the right shows the same process regarding dimensions of social support. Please note that categories were created by the authors of the present review by clustering similar dimensions across the studies.