ArticleJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2022
Bad company: Loneliness longitudinally predicts the symptom cluster of pain, fatigue, and depression in older adults.
Article in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
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
32 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interactive AI Routines for Pain Symptoms and Loneliness in Older Adults.Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses · 2025Trial
- Examining changes in pain interference via pandemic-induced isolation among patients receiving medication for opioid use disorder: a secondary data analysis.BMC public health · 2024Trial
- The impact of loneliness and social isolation on the benefits of an exercise program with hospitalised older adults.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2024Trial
- Loneliness and social isolation as predictors of pain medication use transitions in older adults.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- [Relationship Between Pain and Depressive Symptoms in Middle-aged and Older Chinese Adults: A Cross-Lagged Longitudinal Analysis].Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition · 2026Article
- Identifying individuals who could benefit from a palliative approach to their care using a multi-phase, consultative, iterative approach.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Social wellbeing in older breast cancer survivors taking adjuvant endocrine therapy: impacts of self-efficacy for symptom management and pain.Frontiers in aging · 2026Article
- International trends and social disparities in pain of adults aged 50 years and older in 22 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas: a longitudinal population-based study.The lancet. Healthy longevity · 2026Article
- Lagged symptom-level associations among pain, sleep disturbance, and depressive-affective symptoms in adults aged ≥50 years: an international longitudinal multi-cohort study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Temporal depressive symptom networks in older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2025Article
- Associations Between Physical Activity Frequency, Handgrip Strength, and Limitations in Activities of Daily Living in Middle-Aged and Older Adults with Widespread Pain: A Cross-Sectional Study Using Data from the SHARE Project.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Considerations for delivery of live-remote exercise for people with cancer in research and practice.Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs · 2025Article
- In pain and lonely? A longitudinal study examining the associations between menstrual pain, physical functioning and loneliness.British journal of health psychology · 2025Article
- Loneliness and its associated factors in older Australians residing in retirement living communities: a cross-sectional study.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Mentalizing, Loneliness and Pain-Related Depressive Symptoms Are Associated with Pain Severity in Patients with Rheumatic Diseases: Results of a Cross-Sectional Secondary Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Association of loneliness with the risk of pain in older Chinese adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Identification of distinct symptom profiles in prostate cancer patients with cancer-related cognitive impairment undergoing androgen deprivation therapy: A latent class analysis.Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing · 2024Article
- Social isolation, social media use, and poor mental health among older adults, California Health Interview Survey 2019-2020.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Social connection and end-of-life outcomes among older people in 19 countries: a population-based longitudinal study.The lancet. Healthy longevity · 2024Article
- Bidirectional Longitudinal Association between Back Pain and Loneliness in Later Life: Evidence from English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.Annals of geriatric medicine and research · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPain, fatigue, and depression frequently co-occur as a symptom cluster. While commonly occurring in those with cancer and autoimmune disease, the cluster is also found in the absence of systemic illness or inflammation. Loneliness is a common psychosocial stressor associated with the cluster cross-sectionally. We investigated whether loneliness predicted the development of pain, fatigue, depression, and the symptom cluster over time.
methodsData from the Health and Retirement Study were used. We included self-respondents ≥50 year-old who had at least two measurements of loneliness and the symptom cluster from 2006-2016 (n = 5974). Time-varying loneliness was used to predict pain, fatigue, depression, and the symptom cluster in the subsequent wave(s) using generalized estimating equations (GEE) and adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, living arrangement, and the presence of the symptom(s) at baseline.
resultsLoneliness increased the odds of subsequently reporting pain (aOR 1.22, 95% CI 1.08, 1.37), fatigue (aOR 1.47, 95% CI 1.32, 1.65), depression (aOR 2.33, 95% CI 2.02, 2.68), as well as the symptom cluster (aOR 2.15, 95% CI 1.74, 2.67). The median time between the baseline and final follow-up measurement was 7.6 years (IQR 4.1, 8.2).
conclusionsLoneliness strongly predicts the development of pain, fatigue, and depression as well as the cluster of all three symptoms several years later in a large, nonclinical sample of older American adults. Future studies should examine the multiple pathways through which loneliness may produce this cluster, as well as examine whether other psychosocial stressors also increase risk. It is possible that interventions which address loneliness in older adults may prevent or mitigate the cluster of pain, fatigue, and depression.
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.