2 – 4 June 2021. Due to the worldwide COVID- 19 outbreak, the 25^th  NKG Nordic Gerontology Congress “The age of ageing” took place virtually from 2-4 June 2021. The congress was organized by the Icelandic Gerontological Society (IGS) and the Icelandic Geriatric Medicine Society (Félag íslenskra öldrunarlækna-FÍÖ/IGS).

A team of SHARED researchers attended the congress and organized a symposium titled “Social Health and Dementia”. This symposium focused on the concept of social health and presented findings from SHARED and related projects.

After a short introduction by Prof. Karin Wolf-Ostermann (University of Bremen, Germany) concerning social health and dementia, the first presentation “Social health in dementia research” by Eline Verspoor (Radboud University and Medical Center,  Netherlands) concentrated on the operationalization of the social health concept.

The second presentation ”Protective and risk factors of cognitive decline and dementia with a special emphasis on social health: a systematic mapping review” showed results from a systematic literature review of factors impacting cognition with an emphasis on social health and was presented by Marta Lenart (Wroclaw Medical University, Poland).

The third presentation “Group Model Building as an approach to build a systemic understanding of dementia as a complex disorder” by Imke Seifert (University of Bremen, Germany) presented a first model for mapping and understanding the interplay of (social health) factors related to the development and trajectory of dementia.

The last presentation “Interaction effect of cognition and multimorbidity on functional limitations” reported results from a large Dutch study of the synergistic interaction between multimorbidity and cognitive decline in their combined impact on daily function and social health and was presented by Jessica Aguilar Diaz (Radboud University and Medical Center, Netherlands).

Finally, Prof. Rabih Chattat (University of Bologna, Italy) as the discussant synthesized the presented findings, indicated knowledge gaps and lead a discussion on directions for policy and practice.

Congress Website: https://www.25nkg.is/