ArticleBrain, behavior, and immunity2019
Social engagement and loneliness are differentially associated with neuro-immune markers in older age: Time-varying associations from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
Article in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Loneliness among community-dwelling older adults across biological, clinical and psychosocial domains before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- The Insulin-like Growth Factor Family as a Potential Peripheral Biomarker in Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of Objective and Perceived Social Isolation on Cardiovascular and Brain Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2022Pooled it
- Sickness and the Social Brain: Love in the Time of COVID.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Associations of Iron Indicators with Cognitive Impairment Risk in Postmenopausal Women: Evidence from a Matched Case-Control Study and Back Propagation Neural Network Model.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- Social connections are differentially related to subjective age and physiological age acceleration amongst older adults.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Associations between C-reactive protein-triglyceride glucose index and asthma risk among Chinese adults: evidence from the CHARLS cohort and external hospital-based validation.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Social isolation and loneliness and mortality among cancer survivors: a prospective cohort study.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Social isolation, loneliness, and multi-system medical conditions: phenome-wide association and disease-trajectory analyses.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Risk of End-Stage Kidney Disease in Individuals with Diabetes Living Alone: A Large-Scale Population-Based Study.Diabetes & metabolism journal · 2025Article
- Longitudinal Associations Between Cultural Engagement and Mental and Social Well-Being: A Fixed-Effects Analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Social isolation, loneliness, and their joint effects on cognitive decline and incident Alzheimer's disease: Findings from the Chicago health and aging project.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Article
- Plasma proteomic signatures of social isolation and loneliness associated with morbidity and mortality.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- Stay social, stay young: a bioanthropological outlook on the processes linking sociality and ageing.GeroScience · 2025Review
- Patterns of Social Connection Among Older Adults in England.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Volunteering and Its Association with Depression, Loneliness, and Lifestyle of Older Adults: Insights from a Japanese Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- A serial mediation model of physical exercise and loneliness: the role of perceived social support and resilience.BMC geriatrics · 2024Article
- Longitudinal associations between loneliness, social isolation, and healthcare utilisation trajectories: a latent growth curve analysis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Evaluation of Changes in Social Isolation and Loneliness with Incident Cardiovascular Events and Mortality.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2024Article
- The Longitudinal Dyadic Associations Between Social Participation and Cognitive Function in Older Chinese Couples.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesThis study aimed to explore time-varying associations between social engagement, living status and loneliness and neuro-immune markers in older adults, and ascertain whether results are explained by socioeconomic position, health behaviours or depression.
methodsWe analysed blood samples from 8780 adults aged 50 and above from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing across three waves of data collection: 2004/5, 2008/9 and 2012/2013. We used fixed effects modelling to estimate the relationship between loneliness, social isolation, living alone and levels of fibrinogen, insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), white blood cell (WBC) count and C-reactive protein (CRP), whilst accounting for all time-invariant and identified time-varying confounders.
resultsHigher levels of social engagement and living with somebody were associated with lower levels of CRP, fibrinogen and WBC, while lower levels of loneliness were associated with higher levels of IGF-1. These associations were found to be independent of time-invariant factors such as gender, medical history, previous patterns of social behaviours, unobserved aspects of social class, and genetics, and time-varying factors such as income, physical health, health behaviours, and depression.
conclusionsAspects of social engagement were associated with lower levels of inflammation whilst loneliness was inversely related to the regulation of inflammation. This suggests there could be different biological pathways involved in objective and subjective aspects of social connections.
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