{"doi":"10.3233/jad-201196","title":"The Characteristics of Social Network Structure in Later Life in Relation to Incidence of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Conversion to Probable Dementia","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Larger, more active social networks are estimated to be associated with lower risks of cognitive decline. However, roles of various social relationships in a broad social network in protecting against cognitive decline remain to be elucidated. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate how social roles within a social network and number of social network members are associated with cognitive decline. METHODS: Six waves of National Health and Aging Trends Study (2011-2016, NHATS) were utilized to examine the development of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and probable dementia determined using validated criteria. Multivariable-adjusted multi-state survival models were used to model incidences and transitions, jointly with misclassification errors. RESULTS: A total of 6,078 eligible NHATS participants were included (average age: 77.49±7.79 years; female: 58.42%; non-Hispanic white: 68.99%). Multivariable-adjusted analyses revealed that having more social network members was associated with lower hazards of conversion from MCI to probable dementia (adjusted Hazard Ratio; aHR = 0.82; 95%confidence intervals; 95%CI = [0.67-0.99]), meanwhile having at least one college-educated family member within a social network was associated with lower incidence of probable dementia (aHR = 0.37 [0.26-0.51]). Having at least one friend within a social network was associated with a lower hazard of incidence of probable dementia (aHR = 0.48 [0.33-0.71]), but a higher risk of mortality in the MCI group (aHR = 2.58 [1.47-4.51]). CONCLUSION: Having more social network members, having at least one friend, and having at least one college-educated family member within a social network, were associated with lower risks of incidence of dementia or conversion from MCI to dementia.","journal":"Journal of Alzheimer s Disease","year":2021,"id":189865,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":14,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9553,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":717112,"name":"Ginny Natale","orcid":"0000-0003-0837-4835","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366958,"name":"Sean Clouston","orcid":"0000-0002-6124-0329","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":753259,"name":"Yun Zhang","orcid":"0000-0002-9837-1365","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":60,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:49:22.671571Z","pmid":"33814428","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}