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29 Associations Between Social Support and Cognitive Performance Among Persons with MS
- Caroline M. Rafizadeh, Cheyenne Smith, Michelle H. Chen, John DeLuca, Lauren Strober
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- Journal:
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society / Volume 29 / Issue s1 / November 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 December 2023, pp. 545-546
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- Article
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Objective:
Social support is an emerging protective factor against cognitive decline. However, the relationship between social support and cognitive functioning in the multiple sclerosis (MS) population is not well understood. The present study aimed to investigate the associations between different aspects of social support and cognitive performance among persons with MS.
Participants and Methods:A volunteer sample of 63 persons with MS (% female = 88.9, mean age = 48.16) completed measures assessing perceived levels of social support measured by the Medical Outcomes Study Support Social Survey 5-item short form (MSSS-5), and social network (social network diversity and total size of social network) measured by the Social Network Index (SNI). Cognitive functioning was assessed by a brief virtual examiner-administered neuropsychological test battery (using a teleconferencing platform), including the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, animal naming, and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test. Participants also completed brief, self-paced, virtual cognitive tests through the testmybrain.org platform, which consisted of digit span and the Trail-Making Test. A principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out to reduce the number of neuropsychological outcomes into fewer dimensions. Multiple linear regressions were conducted to examine the associations between social support measures and cognitive performance. Regression models were adjusted by the levels of depressive symptoms (operationalized by the Chicago Multiscale Depression Inventory or the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and premorbid functioning (measured by the Test of Premorbid Functioning).
Results:A PCA reduced neuropsychological outcomes into 3 components representing cognitive domains of 1) processing speed/executive functioning, 2) verbal memory, and 3) verbal fluency / simple attention. In the unadjusted models, both perceived social support (i.e., to what extent one receives assistance from their social network) as well as total size of social network (i.e., total number of people one regularly talks to) were significant predictors of the processing speed/executive functioning component score of moderate strength, where F(1, 59) = 11.93, p = .001, β = 0.41 and F(1, 59) = 11.57, p = .001, β = 0.41, respectively. These associations were maintained after adjusting for depressive symptoms and level of premorbid functioning (F(4, 55) = 3.31, p = .003 and F(4, 55) = 3.31, p = .006, respectively). On the other hand, social network diversity (i.e., number of different types of close social relationships one has) was not a significant predictor of the processing speed/executive functioning component score (p > 0.05). None of the social support measures were significantly associated with the verbal memory and verbal fluency/simple attention component scores.
Conclusions:Greater social support (specifically, perceived levels of assistance and total size of social network) is associated with better performance on processing speed/executive functioning measures among persons with MS, independent of effects from depressive symptoms and premorbid functioning. Maintaining a strong social support network may be an important factor in optimizing cognitive health in MS.
Contributors
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- By Gregory S. Aaen, Maria Pia Amato, Laura J. Balcer, Brenda Banwell, Amit Bar-Or, Khurram Bashir, Anita L. Belman, Susan Bennett, Dorothée Chabas, Tanuja Chitnis, Russell C. Dale, Angelo Ghezzi, Jin S. Hahn, Folker Hanefeld, Deborah Hertz, R. Q. Hintzen, Sunny Im-Wang, Laura J. Julian, Lauren B. Krupp, Nancy L. Kuntz, Grant T. Liu, Timothy Lotze, Andrew McKeon, Maria Milazzo, Ellen M. Mowry, Jayne Ness, Frank S. Pidcock, Immacolata Plasmati, Daniela Pohl, Christel Renoux, Moses Rodriguez, Martino Ruggieri, A. D. Sadovnick, Guillaume Sébire, Isabella Simone, Bruno P. Soares, Jonathan Strober, Esther Tantsis, Marc Tardieu, Silvia Tenembaum, Maria Trojano, Sunita Venkateswaran, Amy T. Waldman, Emmanuelle L. Waubant, Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, Max Wintermark, E. Ann Yeh
- Edited by Dorothée Chabas, University of California, San Francisco, Emmanuelle L. Waubant, University of California, San Francisco
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- Book:
- Demyelinating Disorders of the Central Nervous System in Childhood
- Published online:
- 11 April 2011
- Print publication:
- 17 March 2011, pp vii-ix
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