Cognitive function predicts all-cause mortality independent of social engagement among community-dwelling elderly Japanese men: a 15-year prospective cohort study.

Authors

Yuki Fujita, Masayuki Morikawa, Katsuyasu Kouda, Junko Tamaki, Nozomi Okamoto, Masayuki Iki

Published in

Environmental health and preventive medicine. Volume 31. Pages 56.

Abstract

As the global population ages, cognitive impairment has become a growing public health concern. Although epidemiological studies have examined its association with mortality, sex-stratified analyses and community-based investigations in elderly Asian men remain scarce. Furthermore, social engagement may confound the association between cognitive impairment and mortality; yet few studies among community-dwelling elderly Asian men have simultaneously examined cognitive impairment and social engagement in relation to all-cause mortality in a prospective cohort design. This study therefore aimed to examine whether cognitive impairment is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality independent of social engagement among community-dwelling elderly Japanese men over a 15-year follow-up period.
This prospective cohort study enrolled 2,174 men aged ≥65 years. Follow-up assessments were conducted at five, ten, and fifteen years, with all-cause mortality as the primary outcome. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models to examine the association between cognitive function and all-cause mortality. Confounder-adjusted Kaplan-Meier survival curves were generated using inverse probability of treatment weighting.
The final analytic sample comprised 1,741 men. High social engagement was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality. Compared with participants with normal cognitive function, the hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause mortality were 1.29 (95% CI: 1.06-1.56) for mild cognitive impairment and 1.59 (95% CI: 1.10-2.29) for severe cognitive impairment, after adjusting for potential confounding factors including social engagement.
Cognitive impairment independently predicts an increased risk of all-cause mortality in community-dwelling elderly Japanese men.

PMID:
42649026
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 27 Aug 2026.

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