SynthesisJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2025
Development of loneliness and social isolation after spousal loss: A systematic review of longitudinal studies on widowhood.
Synthesis in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Research trends and hotspots in the mental health of widowed older adults: a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Life after loss: gendered changes in social networks and community participation around widowhood.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Between vulnerability and agency: inner dilemmas and adaptive self-reinvention among widowed older adults living alone in Southwestern China.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Relational Needs in Grief Scale: Development and Psychometric Validation.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Post-Mortem Grief Care for Family Caregivers After Home-Based End-of-Life Care: A Scoping Review.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Review
- Awareness of Care Managers Concerning Grief Care for Older Bereaved Individuals Living Alone Following the Loss of Their Spouse: A Qualitative Research.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- Marital status as an independent prognostic factor in male breast cancer: a SEER-based cohort study.Breast cancer (Tokyo, Japan) · 2025Article
- The Cognitive and Mood-Related Costs of Loneliness: Why Marital Status Matters in Old Age.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 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
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSpousal loss is a stressful life event that is associated with loneliness and social isolation, both of which affect mental and physical health. The primary objective of this paper was to synthesize longitudinal studies that investigated loneliness and social isolation in widowhood.
methodsA systematic search of the literature was conducted using three electronic databases. 26 longitudinal studies published through June 2024 were included for further analysis. Participant characteristics, study design, and key findings were extracted.
resultsMost studies were from the United States or Europe, included more widows than widowers, and assessed loneliness in older adults aged >60 years. Loneliness peaked directly following spousal death, but findings were inconsistent regarding the lasting effects of widowhood. Heterogeneity in the longitudinal trajectories of loneliness was noted, with studies showing linear increases, decreases, or curvilinear relationships over time. Several factors modified the relationship between widowhood and loneliness, including volunteerism, military experience, income, and age. Widowers consistently reported greater loneliness and worse social isolation when compared with widows. Few studies investigated social isolation specifically, but those that did found that social isolation may decrease in widowhood.
conclusionsAs the world grapples with a social pandemic of loneliness and social isolation, widowed adults may be uniquely affected. Few studies investigated the longitudinal trajectory of loneliness and especially social isolation in widowhood, and those that did found heterogenous results. Future work is needed to understand why some widowed adults are uniquely affected by feelings of loneliness and social isolation while others are not, and whether potentially modifiable factors that moderate or mediate this relationship could be leveraged by psychosocial interventions.
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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.