Ann Arbor Times

Daily social interactions, even brief ones such as sending a text message, can help reduce feelings of loneliness among caregivers looking after family members with dementia. This finding comes from a study led by Crystal Ng, a research fellow at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

The research team examined 223 dementia caregivers over five days, asking them to report their social interactions and levels of loneliness every three hours. The results indicated that when caregivers engaged with friends—even those who were not very close—they reported feeling less lonely.

“We found that caregivers reported having interactions with friends in more than 20% of their waking survey prompts,” said Ng. “And these interactions, particularly positive ones, even with not-so-close friends, are related to lower momentary loneliness in daily life.”

Ng noted that this effect was especially strong among “high-burden” caregivers—those managing particularly challenging care responsibilities. “Interacting with friends appears to be particularly important for high-burden caregivers, and that could be the case because higher-burden caregivers are more at risk of being socially isolated and feeling lonely,” she said.

Unlike previous studies that asked participants to recall their feelings over longer periods such as weeks or months, this study used frequent surveys throughout the day to capture real-time changes in loneliness. “This study captured the dynamic fluctuations of loneliness,” Ng explained. “We are not treating loneliness as a personality trait, but as something that fluctuates throughout the day."

Ng added: “Sending a text to a friend or making the time to get in touch with them can make caregivers feel less lonely and foster a sense of connection amid the burden of dementia. Interventions that encourage caregivers to schedule social interactions with friends in daily life can give them a much-needed emotional lift.”

The study was published in the Journal of Gerontology and received support from the National Institute on Aging and the Michigan Center on the Demography of Aging. Other co-authors from the University of Michigan include Angela Turkelson, Anna Kratz, and Kira Birditt.