Understanding the impact of late-life social integration on cognitive health by using longitudinal datasets

Cognitive health is a critical and growing global issue, driven by population ageing and evidenced by the growing burden of dementia. Both normal ageing and neurodegenerative disease contribute to memory decline, yet longitudinal studies reveal substantial heterogeneity in these trajectories. Social integration, the networks and relationships individuals sustain, may play a critical role in protecting late-life cognitive health. Demographic approaches, particularly health expectancy methods, offer a framework to examine this relationship, but challenges remain, including inconsistent cognitive measurement, variation in social integration indicators, and the need to adapt methods for cognitive outcomes. Addressing these challenges can generate policy-relevant evidence to inform the design of supportive social environments that mitigate the dementia burden.

This Confirmation of Candidature presentation will provide an overview of the PhD thesis, including current progress and future proposed papers.

Yizhou Chen is a first-year PhD student at the School of Demography, supported by ANU–CSC scholarship. The first stage of his PhD project, Education Shapes Episodic Memory Measurement via Test Specifications, has been published in Social Science & Medicine. His preliminary work on the U.S. population is currently under peer review.

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Meeting ID: 838 7355 0469

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