Could differential underreporting of loneliness between men and women bias the gender-specific association between loneliness duration and rate of memory decline? A probabilistic bias analysis of effect modification.

ABSTRACT: Gender is an observed effect modifier of the association between loneliness and memory aging. However, this effect modification may be a result of information bias due to differential loneliness underreporting by gender. We applied probabilistic bias analyses to examine whether effect modification of the loneliness-memory decline relationship by gender is retained under three simulation scenarios with various magnitudes of differential loneliness underreporting between men and women. Data were from biennial interviews with adults aged ≥ 50 years in the US Health and Retirement Study from 1996-2016 (5646 women and 3386 men). Loneliness status (yes vs no) was measured from 1996-2004 using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale loneliness item, and memory was measured f

SUBMITTER: Yu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11879530 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature