ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2023
Investigating Biological Pathways Underpinning the Longitudinal Association Between Loneliness and Cognitive Impairment.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2023. 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, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- How loneliness and social isolation are linked to cognitive decline among older adults? A systematic review of underlying physiological and psychobehavioral mechanisms.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Pooled it
- 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 function among Chinese older adults: multiple mediating effects of activities of daily living and anxiety.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Technology-Based Solutions for Combating Loneliness and Isolation in Geriatric Care: A Narrative Review.Clinics in geriatric medicine · 2025Review
- Western Diet and Cognitive Decline: A Hungarian Perspective-Implications for the Design of the Semmelweis Study.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Cumulative loneliness and memory function among U.S. older adults: the role of depressive symptoms.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Article
- Introducing social determinants of health to the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center network: Development and implementation in the Uniform Data Set.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Life-Space Mobility Is Related to Loneliness Among Living-Alone Older Adults: Longitudinal Analysis With Motion Sensor Data.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 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
- Enlarged perivascular spaces in the basal ganglia mediate the negative impact of HbA1c levels on mild cognitive impairment.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Editorial: International perspectives on older adult social isolation and loneliness.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Review
- Association of Loneliness with Functional and Cognitive Status in Minor and Major Neurocognitive Disorders.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Contributions of loneliness to cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults are independent of other risk factors and Alzheimer's pathology: a narrative review.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Review
- Associations Between Longitudinal Loneliness, DNA Methylation Age Acceleration, and Cognitive Functioning.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2023Article
- Affective Neuroscience of Loneliness: Potential Mechanisms underlying the Association between Perceived Social Isolation, Health, and Well-Being.Journal of psychiatry and brain science · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLoneliness precedes the onset of cognitive impairment (CI) in older adults. Although the mechanisms through which loneliness "gets under the skin" to influence the risk of developing CI have been conceptually proposed, they are rarely empirically examined. The Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness posits that loneliness as a stressor could cause dysregulations in multiple physiological systems. The current study investigated whether inflammatory, cardiovascular, and kidney biomarkers mediate the longitudinal association between loneliness and CI.
methodsCross-lagged panel models were used to examine the hypothesized relationships, using 2006, 2010, and 2014 waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 7,037). Loneliness was measured with the 3-item UCLA loneliness scale. CI was assessed with the modified telephone interview for cognitive status. Biomarkers included HbA1C, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and Cystatin C. Using a stepwise model-building approach, first, the model included only loneliness, CI, and biomarker variables; then, sociodemographic covariates were added; lastly, health status were controlled for.
resultsIn unadjusted and partially adjusted models, loneliness was associated with higher odds of worse cognitive status in an 8-year follow-up. Only HbA1C mediated the longitudinal association between loneliness and CI. However, after further controlling for health status, all associations became nonsignificant.
conclusionsExamining a large number of participants and linking a limited number of biological markers with cognition and loneliness longitudinally, our empirical data did not support theoretical propositions, highlighting the critical importance of controlling for confounders in future studies examining longitudinal mediational relationships underlying loneliness and CI.
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