ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2021
The Role of Social Isolation and the Development of Depression. A Comparison of the Widowed and Married Oldest Old in Germany.
Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Suicidality in Individuals With Hearing Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery · 2026Pooled it
- Development of loneliness and social isolation after spousal loss: A systematic review of longitudinal studies on widowhood.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2025Pooled it
- Research trends and hotspots in the mental health of widowed older adults: a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The association of social networks and depression in community-dwelling older adults: a systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Overlap of Frailty and Depression and Its Association With Cardiovascular Disease: A Population-Based Study.Clinical Medicine Insights. Cardiology · 2026Article
- Persistence and Determinants of Late-Life Depression: Results of the Nationally Representative Longitudinal German Aging Survey 2008 to 2023.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2025Article
- Depressive symptom networks before and after widowhood in middle-aged and older adults: findings from four prospective cohort studies.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- Potential profiling of social alienation in elderly stroke patients and study of influencing factors.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- The effect of depressive symptoms on quality of life and its different facets in the oldest age population: evidence from the AgeQualiDe prospective cohort study.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Trends in the prevalence of social isolation among middle and older adults in China from 2011 to 2018: the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Review
- Mental health experiences and coping strategies of BAME care workers who worked in nursing and residential care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Luton, England.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Health Emergencies, Falls, and Use of Communication Technologies by Older People with Functional and Social Frailty: Ageing in Place in Deprived Areas of Italy.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- What Builds Resilience? Sociodemographic and Social Correlates in the Population-Based LIFE-Adult-Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Article
- Widowhood and Health Status Among Chinese Older Adults: The Mediation Effects of Different Types of Support.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Developing a Predictive Model for Depressive Disorders Using Stacking Ensemble and Naive Bayesian Nomogram: Using Samples Representing South Korea.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
21 authors at 8 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Widowhood is common in old age, can be accompanied by serious health consequences and is often linked to substantial changes in social network. Little is known about the impact of social isolation on the development of depressive symptoms over time taking widowhood into account. We provide results from the follow-up 5 to follow-up 9 from the longitudinal study AgeCoDe and its follow-up study AgeQualiDe. Depression was measured with GDS-15 and social isolation was assessed using the Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS-6). The group was aligned of married and widowed people in old age and education through entropy balancing. Linear mixed models were used to examine the frequency of occurrence of depressive symptoms for widowed and married elderly people depending on the risk of social isolation. Our study shows that widowhood alone does not lead to an increased occurrence of depressive symptoms. However, "widowed oldest old", who are also at risk of social isolation, have significantly more depressive symptoms than those without risk. In the group of "married oldest old", women have significantly more depressive symptoms than men, but isolated and non-isolated do not differ. Especially for people who have lost a spouse, the social network changes significantly and increases the risk for social isolation. This represents a risk factor for the occurrence of depressive symptoms.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.