Social Capital Research for Dementia Prevention Strategies through Population Strategies

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K15822
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Epidemiology and preventive medicine
• Research Institution: Nihon Fukushi University (2021); National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology (2018-2020); Chiba University (2017)
• Principal Investigator: Miyaguni Yasuhiro 日本福祉大学, 社会福祉学部, 講師 (90734195)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 認知症 / ソーシャル・キャピタル / 介護予防 / ポピュレーション戦略

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of people with dementia. However, no study has examined the association between community-level social support and the onset of incident dementia using multilevel survival analysis.
We analysed data pertaining to 15,313 (7,381 men and 7,932 women) community-dwelling adults aged 65 years or older who had not accessed long-term care insurance and were living in Aichi Prefecture (seven municipalities) in Japan.
During the 10-year follow-up, the onset of incident dementia occurred in 1,776 adults. Among older people, a 1% increase in community-level social support (in the form of receiving emotional support) was associated with an approximately 4% reduction in the risk of developing dementia, regardless of socio-demographic variables and health conditions (HR=0.96; 95% CI=0.94 to 0.99). Receiving community-level social support in the form of emotional support is associated with a lower risk of developing incident dementia.

Free Research Field

社会疫学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

認知症高齢者が今後増加することが見込まれている我が国では、どのように予防していくのかは社会的関心が高い。その中で、本研究により明らかになった、地域の社会的なつながりを醸成していくことで、認知症発症が抑制される可能性があることが示唆されたことは、社会的意義が高いと考えられる。社会的なつながりを構築していくことは地域づくりにも関係すると考えられるため、地域住民の活動にも反映することが可能であることから行政施策につなげることもできると期待できる。