Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38497781›Full record

ArticleThe American psychologist

Loneliness in midlife: Historical increases and elevated levels in the United States compared with Europe.

Frank J Infurna, Nutifafa E Y Dey, Tita Gonzalez Avilés, Kevin J Grimm, Margie E Lachman, Denis Gerstorf

Open access · hybridAbstract readComparative Study
In one paragraph

Article in The American psychologist. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed
12.7field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Historical Change in Midlife Development from a Cross-National Perspective.Current directions in psychological science · 2026
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Loneliness by Design: The Structural Logic of Isolation in Engagement-Driven Systems.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. A solution to the pervasive problem of response bias in self-reports.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  12. Article
  13. [Loneliness as health risk: a narrative review].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2024
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Frank J InfurnaDepartment of Psychology, Arizona State University.ORCID 0000-0002-0690-9253
Nutifafa E Y DeyDepartment of Psychology, Arizona State University.ORCID 0000-0003-4836-2644
Tita Gonzalez AvilésDepartment of Psychology, Humboldt University Berlin.ORCID 0000-0001-5267-9439
Kevin J GrimmDepartment of Psychology, Arizona State University.
Margie E LachmanDepartment of Psychology, Brandeis University.ORCID 0000-0003-3027-8735
Denis GerstorfDepartment of Psychology, Humboldt University Berlin.ORCID 0000-0002-2133-9498
Arizona State University · USCal Poly Humboldt · USBrandeis University · US

Funding

Integrting Information About Aging SurveysR01AG030153 · NIA · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI Sara Adar, Alden L. Gross · 2007 to 2026
$41.7M
Psychosocial Risk and Resilience Mechanisms Underlying Diversity in Midlife Health, Well-Being, and CognitionR01AG079523 · NIA · ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY-TEMPE CAMPUS · PI Frank John Infurna · 2022 to 2026
$2.5M
Mega Meta Data Set of the Health and Retirement Surveys Around the WorldRC2AG036619 · NIA · RAND CORPORATION · PI KAPTEYN, ARIE · 2009 to 2010
$2.0M
Archiving & Creating User Friendly Data: the Longitudinal Aging Survey in IndiaR03AG043052 · NIA · RAND CORPORATION · PI LEE, JINKOOK · 2012 to 2012
$95k
NIA NIH HHSNIA NIH HHS R01 AG030153NIA NIH HHS R01 AG079523NIA NIH HHS R03 AG043052NIA NIH HHS RC2 AG036619
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Loneliness is gaining attention globally as a public health issue because elevated loneliness increases one's risk for depression, compromised immunity, chronic illness, and mortality. Our objective is to zoom into how loneliness has historically evolved through midlife and investigate whether elevations in loneliness are confined to the United States or are similarly transpiring across peer European nations. We use harmonized data on loneliness from nationally representative longitudinal panel surveys from the United States and 13 European nations to directly quantify similarities and differences in historical change of midlife loneliness trajectories. Compared with any other European nation/region, overall levels of loneliness in the United States are consistently higher by a magnitude of 0.3-0.8

Indexed as

Cross-Cultural ComparisonLonelinessAdultEuropeFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesMaleMiddle AgedUnited States

Identifiers

PMID38497781
PMCPMC11758892
OpenAlexW4392916772

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.