ArticleEpidemiology and psychiatric sciences2025
Predictive role of loneliness on mortality before the age 85 years among mid- to later-life adults in the United States: a 10-year retrospective cohort study.
Article in Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Associations between adverse childhood experiences and progression to incident psychiatric disorders in older adults: A 22-year cohort study.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsLoneliness is a common public health concern, particularly among mid- to later-life adults. However, its impact on early mortality (deaths occurring before reaching the oldest old age of 85 years) remains underexplored. This study examined the predictive role of loneliness on early mortality across different age groups using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
methodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted using data from the 2010-2020 waves of the HRS, restricted to participants aged 50-84 years at baseline. Loneliness was measured using the 11-item UCLA Loneliness Scale, categorized into four levels: low/no loneliness (scores 11-13), mild loneliness (14-16), moderate loneliness (17-20) and severe loneliness (21-33). Cox proportional hazards models and time-varying Cox regression models with age as the time scale were created to evaluate the relationship between loneliness and early mortality, adjusting for sociodemographic, lifestyle, and physical and mental health factors.
resultsAmong 6,392 participants, the overall mortality rate before the age of 85 years was 19.1 per 1,000 person-years. A dose-response relationship was observed, with moderate and severe loneliness associated with 23% (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.02-1.48) and 36% (aHR: 1.36, 95% CI = 1.13-1.65) higher mortality risk, respectively. Significant associations existed for the 65-74-year-old (aHR = 1.37, 95% CI = 1.03-1.83) and 75-84-year-old (aHR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1.23-2.56) age groups in the fully-adjusted models, but not for the 50-64-year-old age group. Time-varying Cox models showed a stronger association for severe loneliness (aHR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.37-1.99).
conclusionsLoneliness is a significant predictor of mortality among older adults. Preventive and interventional programs targeting loneliness may promote healthy ageing.
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.