ArticleBMC geriatrics2022
Association between loneliness and its components and cognitive function among older Chinese adults living in nursing homes: A mediation of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and sleep disturbances.
Article in BMC geriatrics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Prevalence of sleep disorders among older adults in Chinese older adults care institutions: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Loneliness and cognitive function among Chinese older adults: multiple mediating effects of activities of daily living and anxiety.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Article
- The relationship between social isolation, depressive symptoms and cognitive function in older adults: a longitudinal mediation study in China.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- The mediating role of sarcopenia in the link between loneliness and frailty among nursing home residents: a cross-sectional study.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- The mediating effects of sleep quality in the relationship between loneliness and depression among middle-aged and older adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Disparities in anxiety and related factors among Chinese older adults across different aged-care models: a comparison of two cross-sectional studies.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Network of anxiety and depression symptoms in older Chinese adults living alone: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Latent profile analysis of loneliness among elderly people in the community and its relationship with cognitive function.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Social support and depressive symptoms among migrant elderly following children: the chain mediating role of resilience and loneliness.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Preserved learning of implicit regularities with predictive social cues in older adults.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- The relationship between living alone or not and depressive symptoms in older adults: a parallel mediation effect of sleep quality and anxiety.BMC geriatrics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
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Abstract
objectiveThis study aimed to investigate the associations between loneliness and its components and cognitive function among older Chinese adults living in nursing homes and to test whether depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and sleep disturbances mediate these associations.
methodsThe sample comprised 228 Chinese individuals aged ≥ 65 years living in nursing homes who were free of dementia and psychiatric or serious somatic diseases. Loneliness was evaluated using the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Global cognitive function was assessed using the Beijing version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Multivariable linear regression analyses were performed to examine the associations between loneliness and its components and global cognitive function. A mediation analysis was used to test the potential mediating effects of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and sleep disturbances.
resultsThe mean (SD) age of the participants was 80.8 (6.3) years, and 58.3% were women. Compared with the lowest quartile of loneliness degree, the multivariable-adjusted beta coefficient (95% confidence interval [95% CI]) for the highest quartile was -1.32 (-2.61 to -0.02) (P for trend = 0.03). Loneliness components, personal feelings of isolation and the lack of relational connectedness but not the lack of collective connectedness, were also inversely associated with cognitive function. Significant indirect effects on cognitive function were observed for loneliness and its two components (personal feelings of isolation and the lack of relational connectedness) in mediating pathways via depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and sleep disturbances (all p < 0.05).
conclusionsA higher degree of loneliness and its two components, personal feelings of isolation and the lack of relational connectedness, are associated with worse cognitive function among Chinese residents in nursing homes. Depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and sleep disturbances may at least partially mediate these associations.
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