ArticleJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2025
Development and Evaluation of a Brief Social Isolation Measure in the Nationally-Representative Health and Retirement Study.
Article 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. It is linked to trial NCT07792356 (Unlocking Resilience), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers.
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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.
Unlocking Resilience: Autobiographical Time Travel as an Antidote to Loneliness in Older Adults
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Resilience and Relief of Suffering for Older Adults at End-of-Life.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Article
- Social isolation and functional impairment trajectories in a diverse cohort of middle-aged and older adults in Northern California.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe Health and Retirement Study (HRS) has been central to identifying social isolation as a key determinant of health among older adults. However, prior HRS social isolation measures have relied on a subset of participants responding to a leave-behind questionnaire (LBQ), which limits longitudinal analyses, sample size, and inclusion of individuals with cognitive impairment who require a proxy. This study developed a brief social isolation scale that can be used in the full HRS cohort.
methodsWe used 2016 and 2018 HRS data, including 6122 adults ≥ 65 years old. The brief 5-Item "Core" Social Isolation Measure (Range: 0-8 Points) Included Items From the HRS core interview administered to all respondents: marital status, household size, proximity to children, religious participation, and volunteering. We compared three cutoffs (≤ 1, ≤ 2, ≤ 3) to cutoffs for previously established scales (Kotwal and Crowe) Using Sensitivity, specificity, and overall classification accuracy. We also compared the prevalence across demographic and health subgroups, and construct validity through associations with loneliness, depressive, symptoms, and life satisfaction.
resultsParticipants were on average 75.4 years old (SD 7.2), 60% women, and 10% socially isolated using the Kotwal measure and 27% using the Crowe measure. A core measure cutoff of ≤ 2 correctly classified 83.1% vs. Kotwal (Sensitivity: 81.0%, Specificity: 83.2%) and 77.4% vs. Crowe (51.3%, 86.8%). At cutoff ≤ 3, accuracy was 66.6% vs. Kotwal (95.6%, 63.2%) and 70.3% vs. Crowe (74.6%, 68.8%). All three measures showed strong construct validity with loneliness, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction, and relatively consistent prevalence estimates across sociodemographic and health groups.
conclusionsA Brief Social Isolation Measure Aligns Well With Longer, Previously-Established Measures While Addressing Key Limitations in Data Availability and Sample Representativeness. Researchers Should Consider the Appropriate Cutoff Depending on the Research Context, and the Relative Importance of Sensitivity, Specificity, and Sample Size.
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