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. 2025 May 25:9:25424823251336115.
doi: 10.1177/25424823251336115. eCollection 2025 Jan-Dec.

Association between social connectedness and mild cognitive impairment: A case-control study in aging rural Indians

Pooja Rai  1 , Jonas S Sundarakumar  1
Affiliations

Association between social connectedness and mild cognitive impairment: A case-control study in aging rural Indians

Pooja Rai et al. J Alzheimers Dis Rep. .

Abstract

There is a scarcity of evidence on the association between social connectedness and cognitive impairment in the rural Indian population. This cross-sectional study included rural Indians aged 45+ years (n = 5805) from an ongoing aging cohort, the CBR-SANSCOG study. Based on Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), participants were classified into cognitively normal (CN, CDR = 0) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI, CDR = 0.5). Social networks, assessed across three dimensions (network diversity, size, and embeddedness), were compared between the two groups, adjusting for potential confounders. Individuals with MCI had significantly lower mean scores across all three social network dimensions than CN individuals.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; aging; dementia; mild cognitive impairment; rural India; social network.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The datasets used in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request and in accordance with the Centre for Brain Research's data sharing policy.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
This figure compares the mean scores across the three dimensions of the social network Index (SNI) between individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 942) and cognitively normal (CN, n = 4863) individuals. ***p < 0.001, *p < 0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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