Association of social isolation and cognitive performance: a longitudinal study using a four-wave nationwide survey

Abstract Background This study aimed to examine the bidirectional relationship between social isolation and cognitive performance among Chinese middle-aged and older adults. Methods We used four waves of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. A latent growth model (LGM) was applied to examine the association between social isolation and cognitive performance across different characteristics. Results In the analysis, we ultimately included 9,367 participants after excluding respondents with missing key variables. Social isolation and cognitive performance showed significant differences across time. After adjusting for the confounders, there was a significant association between higher social isolation and poor cognitive performance (β = −1.38, p