Loneliness and risk of mortality: A longitudinal investigation in Alameda County, California

We investigated the prospective impact of self-reported loneliness on all-cause mortality, mortality from ischemic disease and mortality from other cardiovascular diseases. We tested these effects through GEE binomial regression models applied to longitudinal data from the Alameda County Study of pe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science & medicine (1982) 2010-07, Vol.71 (1), p.181-186
Main Authors: Patterson, Andrew C., Veenstra, Gerry
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Age
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
California
California - epidemiology
Cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular Diseases - mortality
Cause of Death
Depression
Depression (Psychology)
Emotions
Epidemiology
Exercise
Female
Gender
General aspects
Heart disease
Heart Diseases
Humans
Loneliness
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Medical sciences
Methodology (Data Collection)
Middle Aged
Miscellaneous
Models, Statistical
Mood disorders
Mortality
Mortality - trends
Mortality Rates
Myocardial Ischemia - mortality
Physical activity
Physical Fitness
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Risk
Risk Factors
Sex
Sleep
Social networks
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomic status
Surveys and Questionnaires
U.S.A
USA
USA Loneliness Mortality Socioeconomic status Social networks Sleep Physical activity Depression
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Summary:We investigated the prospective impact of self-reported loneliness on all-cause mortality, mortality from ischemic disease and mortality from other cardiovascular diseases. We tested these effects through GEE binomial regression models applied to longitudinal data from the Alameda County Study of persons aged 21 and over arranged into person-years. Controlling for age and gender, the chances of all-cause mortality were significantly higher among respondents reporting that they often feel lonely compared to those who report that they never feel lonely. Frequent loneliness was not significantly associated with mortality from ischemic heart disease but more than doubled the odds of mortality from other ailments of the circulatory system in models controlling for age and gender. Subsequent models showed that physical activity and depression may be important mediators of loneliness-mortality associations. Finally, we find support for the contention that chronic loneliness significantly increases risk of mortality but also find reason to believe that relatively recent changes in feelings of loneliness increase risk of mortality as well.
ISSN:0277-9536
1873-5347
DOI:10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.03.024