ArticleJournal of affective disorders2021
Living alone, loneliness and lack of emotional support as predictors of suicide and self-harm: A nine-year follow up of the UK Biobank cohort.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 140 citations in OpenAlex.
- Loneliness as an Interface Between Alzheimer's Disease and Suicidal Behaviour: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis and Meta-Analytic Factor Analysis.Psychogeriatrics : the official journal of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The association between social connectedness and euthanasia and assisted suicide and related constructs: systematic review.BMC public health · 2024Pooled 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
- Associations between constructs related to social relationships and mental health conditions and symptoms: an umbrella review.BMC psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Loneliness and the onset of new mental health problems in the general population.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Studies Describing the Effectiveness, Acceptability, and Potential Harms of Place-Based Interventions to Address Loneliness and Mental Health Problems.International journal of environmental research and public health · 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
- Social disconnection integrates genetic and proteomic risks in suicidal ideation and depression.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Timing of emergency department presentation and psychiatric consultation after self-harm or suicide attempts: a registry-based study in Japan.BMC psychiatry · 2026Observational
- Insights into middle-aged men (40-70) who died by suicide: a nationwide mixed methods study in the Netherlands.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Loneliness, affectivity and psychological distress in people living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cluster analysis.Psicologia, reflexao e critica : revista semestral do Departamento de Psicologia da UFRGS · 2026Article
- Late-Life Suicidal Ideation in Nordic and Central-European Countries: Gender Differences and Risk Factors from the SHARE Study.Journal of cross-cultural gerontology · 2026Article
- Educating older adults to use technologies for health management in social settings: perspectives of older adults and community workers.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Social disconnection and subsequent mental disorders: a population-based cohort study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Associations of Social and Physical Isolation With Material Deprivation and Inadequate Use of Preventive Care in the United States.Annals of family medicine · 2026Article
- Individual- and population-level associations of mental disorders with intentional self-harm.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Article
- Sociodemographic Disparities in the Relationship between Living Alone and Suicide Ideation among Older Adults.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2026Article
- Article
- Spatiotemporal clustering and epidemiological characterization of suicides in Ecuador, 2015-2023.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe association between loneliness and suicide is poorly understood. We investigated how living alone, loneliness and emotional support were related to suicide and self-harm in a longitudinal design.
methodsBetween 2006 and 2010 UK Biobank recruited and assessed in detail over 0.5 million people in middle age. Data were linked to prospective hospital admission and mortality records. Adjusted Cox regression models were used to investigate relationships between living arrangements, loneliness and emotional support, and both suicide and self-harm as outcomes.
resultsFor men, both living alone (Hazard Ratio (HR) 2.16, 95%CI 1.51-3.09) and living with non-partners (HR 1.80, 95%CI 1.08-3.00) were associated with death by suicide, independently of loneliness, which had a modest relationship with suicide (HR 1.43, 95%CI 0.1.01-2.03). For women, there was no evidence that living arrangements, loneliness or emotional support were associated with death by suicide. Associations between living alone and self-harm were explained by health for women, and by health, loneliness and emotional support for men. In fully adjusted models, loneliness was associated with hospital admissions for self-harm in both women (HR 1.89, 95%CI 1.57-2.28) and men (HR 1.74, 95%CI 1.40-2.16). LIMITATIONS: Loneliness and emotional support were operationalized using single item measures.
conclusionsFor men - but not for women - living alone or living with a non-partner increased the risk of suicide, a finding not explained by subjective loneliness. Overall, loneliness may be more important as a risk factor for self-harm than for suicide. Loneliness also appears to lessen the protective associations of cohabitation.
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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.