Cognitive functioning across the lifespan: the role of age, social isolation and retirement

One of the most common threats to well-being in older age is social isolation, defined as either an entire lack or an impoverished quality of communication between a person and the outside world. Current estimates suggest that close to 30% of older Canadians are at-risk for social isolation and it has been linked to a number of individual-level risk factors such as physical and mental health problems, morbidity, and mortality rates. The role of social isolation on cognitive functioning, however, is currently not well understood. At the same time, it has become important to identify factors that allow older individuals to maintain adequate cognitive functioning as societies are increasingly relying on technology that can affect independent living. This project will use the data from the CLSA project to establish the contribution of social isolation to cognitive functioning across the lifespan.