Study Reveals Traditional Large Households Fend Off Dementia

Large households fared better in mental health than those living alone. Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock

A strong social network is well known to contribute to well-being, mental health and longevity in adults but when researchers from the University of Adelaide dug further, they found a strong correlation between people living in larger households and a reduced risk of dying from dementia.

In an international investigation of people aged over 60 years from over 180 countries around the world, biomedicine researcher Wenpeng You and his team discovered that “large households protect against dementia mortality,” regardless of age, race, and income.

“It shows that human factors—relationships, a sense of connection and purpose, encouragement and praise, meaningful engagement with others—are all quite important in combatting the progress of dementia,” You said about the study published on March 4.

Researchers say we have evolved to benefit from meaningful, daily, human connections. David Prado Perucha/Shutterstock

Dementia is one of the biggest health challenges in the 21st century, with an estimated cost globally of US$1.3 trillion.

Emeritus Professor Maciej Henneberg, the senior author of the study, said humans have evolved to rely on extended families.

“We are actually not well-adapted to the contemporary trends of small families, personal space and individualism,” Hennenberg said.

Industrialised societies have trended towards small families, personal space and individualism. Shutterstock

He says living with family or other household residents is good for the mind and body because “there are usually regular mealtimes, there is conversation, people to check to see if you have taken your medications, and family members encouraging regular activity.”

“That engagement, when it is positive, stimulates the production of oxytocin, often dubbed the happiness hormone, and that has been shown to have a positive effect on physiological wellbeing by protecting cardio-vascular systems associated with vascular dementia and may exert a beneficial slow-down on dementia development,” Hennenberg said.

The take-home message is that when a traditional large household or family-centred lifestyle is not possible, people should increase their positive interactions with people from their neighbourhood, community groups or other engagements.

“Without that human connection, we don’t thrive as we should,” Hennenberg said.

Greater household size was also revealed in a Norwegian study to protect children against developing mental health disorders.

The more siblings, and the closer in age, the more pronounced was the positive effect on mental health. Girls were also slightly more responsive to the presence of siblings than boys.

“Older siblings would be expected to supplement parents in terms of offering the child an environment that induces the feeling of safety and companionship,” the study said.

“Having older siblings correlated with improved scores on the mental outcome for all age groups probed (3, 5 and 8 years).”