The association between overall social support availability and memory by age and sex: An analysis of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Accompanying rapidly aging populations is an increase in the prevalence of age‐related memory decline. Modifiable factors such as social support availability (SSA) are important to study because they may affect memory function. However, the impact of SSA on memory may vary by sex or age, and evidence on the topic has not been gathered from large‐scale, population‐based studies of middle‐ and older‐aged adults. This cross‐sectional study explores whether the association between overall SSA and memory differs by sex or age group in 45‐ to 85‐year old persons recruited into the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). Method The Comprehensive Cohort of the CLSA (n=30,097) is comprised of adults recruited within 25‐50 kilometers of 11 urban centres across Canada. We used multiple linear regression to explore the association between memory (measured using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test immediate [REY I] and delayed recall [REY II]) and SSA (measured using the 19‐item Medical Outcomes Survey‐Social Support Survey), controlling for sociodemographic, health‐related, and health behaviour covariates. The analyses incorporated the CLSA’s weight and strata variables to account for the complex sampling design. We built separate models by age group (45‐54, 55‐64, 65‐74 and ≥75 years) and sex (males, females) to assess effect modification. Result Results demonstrated positive associations between SSA and memory. For sex, the regression coefficients (β) were larger for males versus females: REY I (β 0.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.06‐0.12; β 0.06, 95% CI 0.03‐0.09, for males and females, respectively); REY II (β 0.07, 95% CI 0.03‐0.10; β 0.03, 95% CI 0.00‐0.07, for males and females, respectively). The strongest associations by age were observed in the 65‐74 age group for REY I (β 0.08, 95% CI 0.04‐0.12) and the 45‐54 age group for REY II (β 0.07, 95% CI 0.02‐0.11). Conclusion Results indicate that individuals with higher levels of SSA might have better memory function, with larger effects observed in males versus females, and varying effects observed by age group. This research points to subgroups that may benefit optimally from social support initiatives developed to promote healthy cognitive function.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.007 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".