ArticleSSM - population health2021
Social contact and inequalities in depressive symptoms and loneliness among older adults: A mediation analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
Article in SSM - population health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental and social wellbeing and the UK coronavirus job retention scheme: Evidence from nine longitudinal studies.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2022Pooled it
- Explainable AI for Digital Health: Predicting Depression Risk in Older Adults Living Alone Using Machine Learning.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Relationships between In-person and Digital Social Interactions with Family and Friends and Loneliness among Older Adults in Japan: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the 2024 JACSIS.Annals of geriatric medicine and research · 2026Article
- Culture matters? Family norms, living arrangements, and loneliness in China.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Unmet needs for proactive health services among older adults with functional impairment in Chinese long-term care facilities (LTCFs): a qualitative study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Exploring the association between loneliness, work environment, and depressive symptoms: evidence from young Korean workers in the Seoul Metropolitan Area.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- The Mediating Role of Sense of Control in the Associations Between Remote Contacts and Loneliness Among Older Adults.Research on aging · 2024Article
- Relationship between self-esteem and quality of life in middle-aged and older patients with chronic diseases: mediating effects of death anxiety.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- The role of social determinants of health in mental health: An examination of the moderating effects of race, ethnicity, and gender on depression through the all of us research program dataset.PLOS mental health · 2024Article
- Moderators of the Association Between Contact Frequency With Non-Cohabitating Adult Children and Depressive Symptoms Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults.Psychiatry investigation · 2023Article
- Cancer patients attending treatment during COVID-19: intolerance of uncertainty and psychological distress.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2022Article
- Primary health care practitioners' perception of patient loneliness in Japanese older adults: A cross-sectional study.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- Changes in Older Adults' Social Contact During the COVID-19 Pandemic.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2022Article
- COVID-19 Social Distancing Measures and Loneliness Among Older Adults.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2022Article
- Social Isolation Among Older Adults in the Time of COVID-19: A Gender Perspective.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Come together: The importance of arts and cultural engagement within the Liverpool City Region throughout the COVID-19 lockdown periods.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSocial contact, including remote contact (by telephone, email, letter or text), could help reduce social inequalities in depressive symptoms and loneliness among older adults.
methodsData were from the 8th wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (2016/17), stratified by age (n = 1578 aged <65; n = 4026 aged 65+). Inverse probability weighting was used to estimate average effects of weekly in-person and remote social contact on depressive symptoms (score of 3+ on 8-item CES-D scale) and two measures of loneliness (sometimes/often feels lonely vs hardly ever/never; and top quintile of UCLA loneliness scale vs all others). We also estimated controlled direct effects of education, partner status, and wealth on loneliness and depressive symptoms under two scenarios: 1) universal infrequent (<weekly) in-person social contact; and 2) universal weekly remote social contact.
resultsWeekly in-person social contact was associated on average with reduced odds of loneliness, but associations with remote social contact were weak. Lower education raised odds of depressive symptoms and loneliness, but differences were attenuated with infrequent in-person contact. Respondents living alone experienced more depressive symptoms and loneliness than those living with a partner, and less wealth was associated with more depressive symptoms. With universal infrequent in-person contact, these differences narrowed among those aged under 65 but widened among those aged 65+. Universal weekly remote contact had relatively little impact on inequalities.
conclusionsReduced in-person social contact may increase depressive symptoms and loneliness among older adults, especially for those aged 65+ who live alone. Reliance on remote social contact seems unlikely to compensate for social inequalities.
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