ArticleInternational journal of geriatric psychiatry2020
Loneliness is associated with risk of cognitive impairment in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe.
Article in International journal of geriatric psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
56 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Loneliness and cognition in older adults: A meta-analysis of harmonized studies from the United States, England, India, China, South Africa, Mexico, and Chile.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Constipation and risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Assessment of the relationship between living alone and suicidal behaviors based on prospective studies: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Sense of meaning and purpose in life and risk of incident dementia: New data and meta-analysis.Archives of gerontology and geriatrics · 2023Pooled it
- Are social isolation and loneliness associated with cognitive decline in ageing?Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Association between loneliness and dementia risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Supportive-leadership training to improve social connection: A cluster-randomized trial demonstrating efficacy in a high-risk occupational context.Journal of occupational health psychology · 2024Trial
- Is my loneliness killing me? Effects of loneliness and social isolation on transitions between cognitive status categories and death.Journal of personality and social psychology · 2026Article
- Development and Validation of a Predictive Model for Identification of Cognitive Impairment Risk in Older Adults with Subjective Cognitive Decline：A Longitudinal Study.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026Article
- Family structure, "Kinlessness", and cognitive decline: Social connectedness and contextual variation in Europe.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2026Article
- The association of Alzheimer's disease genetic risk with social connectedness in middle- and older ages.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Socio-emotional well-being is associated with cognitive function and informant-rated cognitive decline: Results from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol in Europe.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2026Article
- The Longitudinal Impact of Psychosocial Factors on Cognition and Hearing in Younger and Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR · 2026Article
- Disentangling social isolation, loneliness, and later-life cognitive function for older adults in the United States: evidence from causal inference modeling.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Loneliness Subtypes and Their Association With Prevalent and Incident Dementia.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2026Article
- Loneliness and cognitive decline among U.S. adults: A stratified analysis of the BRFSS.PloS one · 2026Article
- Trajectories of episodic memory in midlife: Historical change from a cross-country perspective.Psychology and aging · 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
- Differential Impact of Risk Factors for Cognitive Decline in Heterosexual and Sexual Minority Older Adults in England.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Psychometric analysis of the three item loneliness scale in the Czech Republic.BMC psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo test whether loneliness is associated with the risk of cognitive impairment up to 11 years later in a European sample of middle-aged and older adults. The study examines whether this association is independent of measures of social isolation, depression, and other risk factors for cognitive impairment and dementia.
methodsParticipants (N = 14 114) from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) answered a single item on loneliness at baseline and were assessed for cognitive impairment every 2-to-3 years for 11 years. Participants who scored at least 1.5 standard deviations below the age-graded mean on both a memory recall task and verbal fluency task were classified as impaired. A three-item measure of loneliness was available for a sample of respondents followed up to 4 years.
resultsFeeling lonely was associated with increased risk of incident cognitive impairment (HR = 1.31, 95%CI = 1.19-1.44), after accounting for age, sex, education, and SHARE country strata. The association was robust but reduced in magnitude when controlling for clinical and behavioral risk factors, health-related activity limitations, social isolation, social disengagement, and depressive symptoms. The association was not moderated by socio-demographic factors and was also apparent when using the three-item loneliness scale instead of the single-item measure.
conclusionsThese findings expand the extant literature on loneliness and the risk of cognitive impairment in older adulthood. Loneliness is one modifiable factor that can be intervened prior to the development of severe impairment or dementia.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.