Over the years, the bar on what counts as serious research has been lowered. So instead of excitement over a study that could explain what causes dementia or how to prevent it, instead, we are fed a soft, emotional tale about how feeling lonely as a kid might somehow raise your dementia risk half a lifetime later.
Sorry, folks – that’s not science. That’s just a statistic. It’s like noting that more people who die in car crashes happen to be wearing white underwear instead of purple. That doesn’t mean white underwear causes accidents; it simply means the numbers lined up that way.
And even though this recent dementia study called “Childhood Loneliness and Cognitive Decline and Dementia Risk in Middle-Aged and Older Adults” was published in JAMA [1] (Journal of the American Medical Association), I don’t consider this to be credible in any way, shape, or form. Disclaimer: I’m not in the medical field.
The question they raised: “ Is childhood loneliness associated with cognitive decline and incident dementia?”
The study was a long-term study of Chinese adults, conducted between June 1, 2011, and December 31, 2018, with a maximum follow-up of 7 years.
Their findings: “In this cohort study of 13 592 participants, childhood loneliness was associated with faster cognitive decline and higher risk of incident dementia in middle and later adulthood.”
Associated with. What does that mean? “Associated with” does NOT mean “caused by.” It means that the two things appear together more often than they do by chance in their study. It’s a statistic.
Don’t get me wrong…childhood loneliness is unpleasant. But when did psychology become the fine print in a DIY dementia prevention manual and media outlets like the Daily Mail [2] proclaiming “Surprising new cause of dementia discovered.”
Out of the 13,592 adults in the study (average age 58), about half said they may have felt lonely as kids, and about 4% said they definitely were lonely. MAY have felt?? That’s not hard science either and their answers to questions are subjective.
Those who felt lonely in childhood showed slightly faster cognitive decline later in life and had a 41% higher risk of developing dementia compared to people who didn’t feel lonely as kids.
Sorry folks… but dementia isn’t caused by missing birthday party invites. It’s caused by actual biological and medical factors – neurodegeneration, brain damage, genetics, vascular disease, metabolic issues, inflammation, age-related changes, and possibly things like environmental exposures or even diet. You know… science.
Instead of real science, we’re being served a bowl of gooey gobbledygook. Correlation does not imply causation.
So yes, go find a lunch-buddy, teach your kids social skills and encourage teenage bonding. And buddy up during your middle-age and golden years. But let’s not pretend this study proves that feeling lonely is a direct gateway to forgetting your spouse’s name by 65. Brain health isn’t a Hallmark movie – it’s hard science.
At the end of the day, loneliness is sad – but not a secret medical time bomb. It doesn’t rewire your neurons into dementia; it just makes life feel heavier and may chip away at resilience over time. That’s worth addressing – but turning childhood mood swings into a predictive diagnostic tool for Alzheimer’s or dementia is where science stops and storytelling begins. Let’s stick to real causes, real biology, and real prevention – not padded feelings dressed up as medical breakthroughs.