Investigating Biological Pathways Underpinning the Longitudinal Association Between Loneliness and Cognitive Impairment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Loneliness precedes the onset of cognitive impairment (CI) in older adults. Although the mechanisms through which loneliness "gets under the skin" to influence the risk of developing CI have been conceptually proposed, they are rarely empirically examined. The Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness posits that loneliness as a stressor could cause dysregulations in multiple physiological systems. The current study investigated whether inflammatory, cardiovascular, and kidney biomarkers mediate the longitudinal association between loneliness and CI.

Methods

Cross-lagged panel models were used to examine the hypothesized relationships, using 2006, 2010, and 2014 waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 7,037). Loneliness was measured with the 3-item UCLA lo

SUBMITTER: Yu K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11015400 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature