Being a social climber not only gets people invited to the best parties, but it also does wonders for your health.
Researchers in Japan found that people who moved up the social ladder were up to 40 percent less likely to suffer from dementia.
People born into low-income households with little social support and who gained more wealth and social status over their lifetime saw the greatest protective effect.
In contrast, people who were stuck on a low rung of the socioeconomic ladder, those moving from a higher rung to a lower rung, and those somewhere in between were more likely to develop dementia than climbers.
Around 55 million people are currently living with dementia. Scientists believe that a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors likely contribute to the likelihood of developing the disease.
Social support decreases the risk of developing dementia. This study was one of the first to show whether changing your social position can affect your risk of dementia.
“This report marks the first documentation, to our knowledge, of the benefits of ascending SES patterns over the life course for dementia prevention,” the study authors wrote in the paper, published in the journal Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open.
Researchers suggest that social advancement could make the brain more resistant to stress, which is thought to be a big risk factor for dementia.
The authors point to research from Rutgers University who discovered that people who overcome stressful life experiences have better memories.
This could be because the stressful situation requires the person to learn more, which exercises their brain, making it stronger and better able to withstand the changes that occur as we age.
Lead author Hiroyasu Iso, an epidemiologist and director of the Institute for Global Health Policy Research (iGHP), said scientists have long known that the more social support a person has, the less likely they are to develop dementia.
For example, a French study showed that people who felt lonely in old age were 30 percent more likely develop dementia than those with a rich social life.
But very few studies have investigated whether changing your social status can protect you from those risks, Dr. Iso wrote.
Dr. Iso’s study used data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES), which tracked the living conditions of approximately 200,000 people aged 65 or over in Japan between 2010 and 2016 to determine what factors helped them live healthier and longer.
They divided people into different categories based on their average income, educational level, and self-reported social life.
The lowest earners earned on average $7,217 per year or less, the highest earned $38,690.
Those lower on the scale were often underweight, more likely to live alone, more likely to suffer from mental illness, and less likely to earn an advanced degree.
The lowest researcher also reported feeling like they had less social support at home, fewer friends nearby, and were more likely to live in a rural area.
Higher socioeconomic groups had people who were more educated, more likely to exercise, more likely to socialize, and lived in more urban areas. Additionally, they reported feeling like they had social support at home and close friends nearby.
Social climbers, therefore, were those who were born into a low-income environment and received little early education, but built themselves into a wealthier home.
About 5.8 million people in the US and 944,000 people in the UK have dementia, according to the CDC and NHS.
The degenerative condition will affect someone in almost everyone’s life, yet we actually know very little about the causes of the debilitating disease.
Lifestyle factors, such as whether you grew up rich or poor, seem to play a role.
The new findings are based on a study published by Researchers from the University of College London at the beginning of this year.
UCL researchers found that people moving up the social ladder were 50 per cent less likely to develop dementia than those moving down the social ladder.
However, scientists have not always reached a similar conclusion, wrote corresponding author, epidemiologist and iGHP director Hiroyasu Iso.
For example, a Study for 12 years in Sacramento. A study of 1,789 older American participants from Mexico found that people who had started from an advantageous social position but had changed over time had no greater risk of dementia than any other group.
