ReviewEuropean journal of ageing2022
Loneliness, social network size and mortality in older adults: a meta-analysis.
Review in European journal of ageing, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Loneliness, social isolation, and living alone: a comprehensive systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression of mortality risks in older adults.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2025Pooled it
- Feasibility, acceptability, and outcomes: A pilot trial of the enhancing social function in older veterans with PTSD (ESVP) group intervention.Psychological services · 2026Trial
- Assessing a facilitated social network intervention for health outcomes in lonely and socially isolated people: the pragmatic, cluster-randomized PALS trial.Frontiers in public health · 2026Trial
- Interviewer gender and loneliness disclosure in survey research: evidence from the European Social Survey and the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe.Population health metrics · 2026Article
- Loneliness, Chronic Conditions, and Healthcare Engagement in Japan: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study.JMA journal · 2026Article
- Assessing loneliness in later life: validation of the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale for Portuguese older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Loneliness and Psychosocial Well-Being in Nursing Homes: A Cross-Sectional Study of Older Adults.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Domain-specific Internet use and social participation in older adults: the role of affective attitudes toward digital device use.European journal of ageing · 2026Article
- Prospective Associations between Self-perceived Voice Disorders and Psychological, Social, and Physical Well-being among Community-Dwelling Older Adults.Annals of geriatric medicine and research · 2026Article
- Effect of social support and social network on the risk of hearing aids abandonment among older adults with hearing loss.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Beyond close ties: how social engagement shapes care-giver burden in later life.Ageing and society · 2026Article
- Modifiable psychosocial risk factors for depression among cancer survivors in the United States.PloS one · 2026Article
- Loneliness and all-cause mortality in the United States.PloS one · 2026Article
- Mapping loneliness prevention and alleviation interventions: a comparative survey of Basel, Bern, Zurich, and Dublin.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Loneliness, boredom, and leisure in later life: associations with well-being.Innovation in aging · 2026Article
- Mapping the factors of loneliness in older adults: the role of employment and work activity - a scoping review.International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health · 2025Article
- Personal online social networks as moderators of the association between loneliness and quality of life in Polish adults aged 50.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Trajectories of psychological and social well-being preceding death.BMJ mental health · 2025Article
- Diverse social environments and 10-year all-cause mortality in a cohort of historically excluded racial/ethnic older adults: A latent class analysis of social integration.Annals of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Association of playing cards/mahjong with all-cause mortality in older adults: a cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Loneliness and social network size have been found to be predictors of mortality in older adults. The objective of this study was to investigate whether loneliness and small social network size are associated with an increased mortality risk and to review the evidence for either network size, or loneliness that constitutes the higher mortality risk. A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE and PsychInfo in January/February 2018 and March/April 2021. Studies that mentioned outcome data were included in the meta-analysis and coded using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale for Cohort Studies. The meta-analysis showed that both loneliness and small social network size are associated with mortality risk in older adults (Hazard Ratio 1.10 (95% Confidence Interval 1.06-1.14) for loneliness and 0.96 (95% Confidence Interval 0.93-0.99) for larger network size). Sensitivity analyses according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale yielded varying results. Heterogeneity was large. In conclusion, both loneliness and small social network size in older adults are associated with increased mortality, although the effect size is small. Targeting subjective and objective aspects of older adults' social contacts should be on the agenda of preventive as well as personalized medicine. In order to be able to compare the association between loneliness and network size and mortality, more studies are needed that include both these risk factors. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-022-00740-z.
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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.