Social Connectedness and Cognitive Decline: A Multidimensional Analysis Across Healthy and Cognitively Impaired Italian Adults

Purpose: Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly recognized as critical psychosocial determinants of cognitive aging and dementia risk. By adopting a multidimensional approach, this study examines how both objective and subjective features of social connectedness relate to cognitive functioning across healthy and older cognitively normal and impaired Italian adults. Methods: In Experiment 1, 662 healthy participants ( M _age= 51.7 years) completed a brief assessment, including measures of general cognition, associative memory and social cognition, subjective cognitive decline and questionnaires on social connectedness. In Experiment 2, 141 older adults ( M _age= 64.29 years) were categorized as cognitively healthy (CH; n=68) and cognitively impaired (CI; n=73) after a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. Results: Experiment 1 regression analyses revealed that larger social networks and cohabitation were associated with better associative memory and social cognition, while higher loneliness predicted greater subjective cognitive decline. Notably, the results observed in the larger sample were partially confirmed in experiment 2, with CI group having worse scores in delayed free recall of the Italian Face-Name Association Test. Furthermore, depression, rather than loneliness, was a significant predictor of subjective cognitive complaints, independent of cognitive status. Conclusion: These findings underscore the distinct and interactive roles of objective and subjective social isolation in shaping cognitive trajectories and highlight the importance of integrating psychosocial variables into dementia prevention strategies.