The role of social support and social contact in cognitive aging: A study of sex/gender and sexuality in the Health and Retirement Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Sexual‐minority (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual [SM]) people may be at an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia (ADRD) from stress related to experiences of minoritization. Strong levels of social contact and social support decreases dementia risk; these effects may differ by sex/gender and sexuality. The purpose of this presentation is to elucidate the relationship between cognitive function, social support, and social networks with a focus on sexuality and sex/gender. Method Data analyzed were from waves 8‐14 (2006‐2018) of the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal survey of U.S. residents aged ≥51 years (N = 18,183). Participants who reported their sexual orientation as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, or those in same‐sex relationships for at least one wave were classified as SMs. A gender/sexuality variable was created with four levels: SM‐women (n = 101), heterosexual women (n = 9,942), SM‐men (n = 106), and heterosexual men (n = 8,034). Social contact and support were reported for network size, frequency of contact, and quality of interactions across four relationships: spouses, children, family, and friends. Cognitive function was measured on a 27‐point scale. The primary analysis consisted of a series of multiple linear regression models, treating cognition as the outcome, and adjusting for age, wealth, education, and race. Result Descriptive analysis showed that SM‐men and SM‐women tended to be younger and join the study later than heterosexual men and women, and at baseline, heterosexual men had lower cognitive scores compared to the other three groups (F = 82.44, p<0.001). Moderation analysis showed the relationship between positive spousal support and cognition was inconsistent across gender/sexuality groups (χ2 = 11.58, p = 0.009); SM‐women did not benefit from positive spousal support as much as other gender/sexuality groups. Greater frequency of social contact was associated with higher cognitive function, except among SM‐women where greater social contact was associated with lower cognitive function (χ2 = 9.65, p = 0.023). Support from other social groups did not have differential effects across gender/sexuality groups. Conclusion Findings highlighted variable and gendered effects of social support and social contact on cognitive functioning in aging SM people. Examining differential effects for SM/gender groups is essential to inclusive ADRD research.
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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 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 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".