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. 2021 Jul 4;18(13):7166.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18137166.

Operationalizing Social Environments in Cognitive Aging and Dementia Research: A Scoping Review

Rachel L Peterson  1 , Kristen M George  1 , Duyen Tran  2 , Pallavi Malladi  3 , Paola Gilsanz  4 , Amy J H Kind  5   6   7   8 , Rachel A Whitmer  9   10 , Lilah M Besser  11 , Oanh L Meyer  1   10
Affiliations

Operationalizing Social Environments in Cognitive Aging and Dementia Research: A Scoping Review

Rachel L Peterson et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Social environments are a contributing determinant of health and disparities. This scoping review details how social environments have been operationalized in observational studies of cognitive aging and dementia.

Methods: A systematic search in PubMed and Web of Science identified studies of social environment exposures and late-life cognition/dementia outcomes. Data were extracted on (1) study design; (2) population; (3) social environment(s); (4) cognitive outcome(s); (5) analytic approach; and (6) theorized causal pathways. Studies were organized using a 3-tiered social ecological model at interpersonal, community, or policy levels.

Results: Of 7802 non-duplicated articles, 123 studies met inclusion criteria. Eighty-four studies were longitudinal (range 1-28 years) and 16 examined time-varying social environments. When sorted into social ecological levels, 91 studies examined the interpersonal level; 37 examined the community/neighborhood level; 3 examined policy level social environments; and 7 studies examined more than one level.

Conclusions: Most studies of social environments and cognitive aging and dementia examined interpersonal factors measured at a single point in time. Few assessed time-varying social environmental factors or considered multiple social ecological levels. Future studies can help clarify opportunities for intervention by delineating if, when, and how social environments shape late-life cognitive aging and dementia outcomes.

Keywords: social context; social ecological model.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Conceptual 3-tier social ecological model for individual cognitive aging and dementia outcomes used to organize studies of social environments included in this review. (B) The 3-tier social ecological model rescaled to reflect the proportion of single studies that met inclusion criteria in each ecological level.
Figure 2
Figure 2
CONSORT flow diagram of study exclusion and inclusion.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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