Community-Based Study of the Relationship Between Social Capital and Cognitive Function in Wuhan, China.

The present study aimed to detect the association between social capital and cognitive function in elderly residents with/without mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Wuhan, China. A cross-sectional study was conducted for data collection in 2014. A sample of 1156 participants entered the study. Cognitive function was assessed using the Chinese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. A modified instrument scale was used to measure bonding and bridging social capital. The results indicated that participants without MCI had higher social capital scores (45.2 ± 8.3) than those with MCI (37.0 ± 6.3; P < .001). With adjustments for relevant confounders, the multiple logistic regression model showed that participants with a bonding social capital score that ranged from 17 to 24 had an odds ratio (OR) for MCI of 0.38 (95% CI = 0.04-0.79); those with a score that ranged from 25 to 32 had an OR for MCI of 0.36 (95% CI = 0.04-0.70); and those with scores ≥33 had an OR for MCI of 0.25 (95% CI = 0.03-0.53). In conclusion, we found a statistically significant inverse association between bonding social capital and MCI, which suggests that shortage of social resource from homogeneous social networks might be associated with cognitive decline.