ArticleScientific reports2025
The relationships between social internet use, social contact, and loneliness in older adults.
Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Associations Between Social Media-Based Digital Contact with Family and Friends on Loneliness and Well-being Outcomes in Middle-aged and Older Adults: A Mediation Analysis.Humanities & social sciences communications · 2026Article
- Perspectives of French community-dwelling older adults on the use of digital services: a qualitative study based on interviews.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Digital Empowerment for Older Women: Addressing Inequality Through Competence Training.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Hormonal and Behavioral Consequences of Social Isolation and Loneliness: Neuroendocrine Mechanisms and Clinical Implications.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Social network diversity and COVID-19 infection and severity risk: a longitudinal population study.Frontiers in public health · 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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social internet use might decrease loneliness, potentially by increasing social contact. Vice versa, loneliness might decrease social internet use by decreased social contact. However, few studies explored these associations longitudinally. This study aimed to assess the longitudinal, bidirectional associations between frequency of social internet use, loneliness, and social contact (measured as the number of frequently contacted personal network members). We used four waves of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (2011-13, 2015-16, 2018-19, 2021-22) in a sample of 1923 Dutch older adults (age 55-98). We applied random intercept cross-lagged panel models to test the bidirectional and mediational relationships. We found a longitudinal association between social internet use and subsequent loneliness, β = -0.07, p = .008, but no evidence of mediation of social contact, nor of a reversed association. These results strengthen existing evidence for a positive association of social internet use in decreasing loneliness. In contrast, more loneliness did not predict a difference in social internet use, suggesting that this reversed relationship is more complex or dependent on individual characteristics.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.