CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 227Health disparities and outcomesCOVID-19 and Mental HealthDeath Anxiety and Social Exclusion

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 18 of the 18 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Factors Associated With Loneliness: An Umbrella Review Of Observational Studies

Open access
Solmi, Marco, Veronese, Nicola, Galvano, Daiana, Favaro, Angela, Ostinelli, Edoardo G, Noventa, Vania, Favaretto, Elisa, Tudor, Florina, Finessi, Matilde, Shin, Jae Il, Smith, Lee, Koyanagi, Ai, Cester, Alberto, Bolzetta, Francesco, Cotroneo, Antonino, Maggi, Stefania, Demurtas, Jacopo, De Leo, Diego, Trabucchi, Marco·2020·Journal of Affective Disorders
DOI 10.1016/j.jad.2020.03.075
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background Evidence provides inconsistent findings on risk factors and health outcomes associated with loneliness. The aim of this work was to grade the evidence on risk factors and health outcomes associated with loneliness, using an umbrella review approach. Methods For each meta-analytic association, random-effects summary effect size, 95% confidence intervals (CIs), heterogeneity, evidence for small-study effect, excess significance bias and 95% prediction intervals were calculated, and used to grade significant evidence (p<0.05) from convincing to weak. For narrative systematic reviews, findings were reported descriptively. Results From 210 studies initially evaluated, 14 publications were included, reporting on 18 outcomes, 795 studies, and 746,706 participants. Highly suggestive evidence (class II) supported the association between loneliness and incident dementia (relative risk, RR=1.26; 95%CI: 1.14-1.40, I 2 23.6%), prevalent paranoia (odds ratio, OR=3.36; 95%CI: 2.51-4.49, I 2 92.8%) and prevalent psychotic symptoms (OR=2.33; 95%CI: 1.68-3.22, I 2 56.5%). Pooled data supported the longitudinal association between loneliness and suicide attempts and depressive symptoms. In narrative systematic reviews, factors cross-sectionally associated with loneliness were age (in a U-shape way), female sex, quality of social contacts, low competence, socio-economic status and medical chronic conditions. Limitations Low quality of the studies included; mainly cross-sectional evidence. Conclusions This work is the first meta-evidence synthesis showing that highly suggestive and significant evidence supports the association between loneliness and adverse mental and physical health outcomes. More cohort studies are needed to disentangle the direction of the association between risk factors for loneliness and its related health outcomes.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jad.2020.03.075

Cites

18 of 18 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Loneliness has detrimental effects on mental and physical health, evident in increased risk of psychological disorders, cognitive decline, and all-cause mortality.

    “loneliness has detrimental effects on mental and physical health, evident in increased risk of psychological disorders, cognitive decline, and all‐cause mortality.[ 1 , 2 ]”

    From Loneliness and the Social Brain: How Perceived Social Isolation Impairs Human Interactions (2021) · cites this paper as [2]

    The Conclusion (section 4.2; page unavailable) reports increased risk of dementia and associations with depression and other psychiatric symptoms. The Results (section 3.2; page unavailable) also report an association with mortality, but rate its evidence only suggestive. Because this is an umbrella review of observational studies, the claim’s wording that loneliness has detrimental effects overstates what these associations establish. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 47

  1. Alderete, 2000, Lifetime prevalence of and risk factors for psychiatric disorders among Mexican migrant farmworkers in California, American Journal of Public Health, 90, 608, 10.2105/AJPH.90.4.608 · DOI
  2. Anderson, 1988, Brief report: Discriminating between problems in living: An examination of measures of depression, loneliness, shyness, and social anxiety, Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 6, 482, 10.1521/jscp.1988.6.3-4.482 · DOI
  3. Bolzetta, 2019, The Relationship between Dietary Vitamin K and Depressive Symptoms in Late Adulthood: A Cross-Sectional Analysis from a Large Cohort Study, Nutrients, 11, 10.3390/nu11040787 · DOI
  4. Bortolato, 2017, Systematic assessment of environmental risk factors for bipolar disorder: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, Bipolar Disord, 19, 84, 10.1111/bdi.12490 · DOI
  5. Brown, 2018, Loneliness and acute stress reactivity: A systematic review of psychophysiological studies, Psychophysiology, 55, e13031, 10.1111/psyp.13031 · DOI · Paper page
  6. Bucci, 2018, Premorbid academic and social functioning in patients with schizophrenia and its associations with negative symptoms and cognition, Acta Psychiatr Scand, 138, 253, 10.1111/acps.12938 · DOI
  7. Chau, 2019, Loneliness and the psychosis continuum: a meta-analysis on positive psychotic experiences and a meta-analysis on negative psychotic experiences, International review of psychiatry, 31, 471, 10.1080/09540261.2019.1636005 · DOI
  8. Deckx, 2018, A systematic literature review on the association between loneliness and coping strategies, Psychology, health & medicine, 23, 899, 10.1080/13548506.2018.1446096 · DOI
  9. DerSimonian, 1986, Meta-analysis in clinical trials, Control Clin Trials, 7, 177, 10.1016/0197-2456(86)90046-2 · DOI · Paper page
  10. Dragioti, 2017, Does psychotherapy work? An umbrella review of meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials, Acta Psychiatr Scand, 136, 236, 10.1111/acps.12713 · DOI
  11. Erzen, 2018, The effect of loneliness on depression: A meta-analysis, The International journal of social psychiatry, 64, 427, 10.1177/0020764018776349 · DOI · Paper page
  12. Fusar-Poli, 2018, Ten simple rules for conducting umbrella reviews, Evidence-based mental health, 21, 95, 10.1136/ebmental-2018-300014 · DOI · Paper page
  13. Gardiner, 2018, Interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness among older people: an integrative review, Health & social care in the community, 26, 147, 10.1111/hsc.12367 · DOI
  14. Giordano, 2018, Neurophysiological correlates of Avolition-apathy in schizophrenia: A resting-EEG microstates study, Neuroimage Clin, 20, 627, 10.1016/j.nicl.2018.08.031 · DOI
  15. Green, 1992, Risk factors for depression in elderly people: a prospective study, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica, 86, 213, 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1992.tb03254.x · DOI
  16. Higgins, 2003, Measuring inconsistency in meta-analyses, BMJ, 327, 557, 10.1136/bmj.327.7414.557 · DOI · Paper page
  17. Ioannidis, 2007, An exploratory test for an excess of significant findings, Clin Trials, 4, 245, 10.1177/1740774507079441 · DOI · Paper page
  18. Ioannidis, 2013, Clarifications on the application and interpretation of the test for excess significance and its extensions, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 57, 184, 10.1016/j.jmp.2013.03.002 · DOI
  19. Li, 2017, Serum uric acid levels and multiple health outcomes: umbrella review of evidence from observational studies, randomised controlled trials, and Mendelian randomisation studies, BMJ, 357, j2376, 10.1136/bmj.j2376 · DOI
  20. Lim, 2019, A Pilot Digital Intervention Targeting Loneliness in Youth Mental Health, Front Psychiatry, 10, 604, 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00604 · DOI
  21. Luo, 2014, Loneliness and mortality among older adults in China, Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 69, 633, 10.1093/geronb/gbu007 · DOI · Paper page
  22. Malcolm, 2019, Loneliness and social isolation causal association with health-related lifestyle risk in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol, Systematic reviews, 8, 48, 10.1186/s13643-019-0968-x · DOI
  23. Michalska da Rocha, 2018, Loneliness in Psychosis: A Meta-analytical Review, Schizophrenia bulletin, 44, 114, 10.1093/schbul/sbx036 · DOI
  24. Moher, 2009, Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement, PLoS Med, 6, 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097 · DOI · Paper page
  25. Mote, 2019, How did that interaction make you feel? The relationship between quality of everyday social experiences and emotion in people with and without schizophrenia, PloS one, 14, 10.1371/journal.pone.0223003 · DOI
  26. Mushtaq, 2014, Relationship between loneliness, psychiatric disorders and physical health? A review on the psychological aspects of loneliness, Journal of clinical and diagnostic research: JCDR, 8
  27. Perlman, 1981, Toward a social psychology of loneliness, Personal relationships, 3, 31
  28. Petitte, 2015, A Systematic Review of Loneliness and Common Chronic Physical Conditions in Adults, The open psychology journal, 8, 113, 10.2174/1874350101508010113 · DOI
  29. Pimlott, 2018, The ministry of loneliness, Can Fam Physician, 64
  30. Prince, 1997, Social support deficits, loneliness and life events as risk factors for depression in old age, The Gospel Oak Project VI. Psychological medicine, 27, 323
  31. Raglan, 2018, Risk factors for endometrial cancer: An umbrella review of the literature, Int J Cancer.
  32. Rico-Uribe, 2018, Association of loneliness with all-cause mortality: A meta-analysis, PloS one, 13, 10.1371/journal.pone.0190033 · DOI
  33. Robustelli, 2017, Social relationships in young adults at ultra high risk for psychosis, Psychiatry Res, 247, 345, 10.1016/j.psychres.2016.12.008 · DOI
  34. Rozzini, 2008, Predictors of progression from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer disease, Neurology, 70, 735, 10.1212/01.wnl.0000307674.94539.09 · DOI
  35. Sarason, 1986, Social support as an individual difference variable: Its stability, origins, and relational aspects, Journal of personality and social psychology, 50, 845, 10.1037/0022-3514.50.4.845 · DOI
  36. Schrempft, 2019, Associations between social isolation, loneliness, and objective physical activity in older men and women, BMC Public Health, 19, 74, 10.1186/s12889-019-6424-y · DOI
  37. Shioda, 2016, Loneliness and related factors among people with schizophrenia in Japan: a cross‐sectional study, Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 23, 399, 10.1111/jpm.12318 · DOI
  38. Singh, 2009, Loneliness, depression and sociability in old age, Industrial psychiatry journal, 18, 51, 10.4103/0972-6748.57861 · DOI
  39. Strauss, 2019, Network Analysis Reveals the Latent Structure of Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia, Schizophrenia bulletin, 45, 1033, 10.1093/schbul/sby133 · DOI
  40. Stravynski, 2001, Loneliness in relation to suicide ideation and parasuicide: A population-wide study, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 31, 32, 10.1521/suli.31.1.32.21312 · DOI
  41. Stroup, 2000, Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: a proposal for reporting, Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) group. JAMA, 283, 2008
  42. Sündermann, 2014, Social networks and support in first-episode psychosis: exploring the role of loneliness and anxiety, Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 49, 359, 10.1007/s00127-013-0754-3 · DOI
  43. Theodoratou, 2014, Vitamin D and multiple health outcomes: umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies and randomised trials, BMJ, 348, g2035, 10.1136/bmj.g2035 · DOI · Paper page
  44. Tobin, 2014, A systematic review of social participation for adults with autism spectrum disorders: Support, social functioning, and quality of life, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 8, 214, 10.1016/j.rasd.2013.12.002 · DOI
  45. Veronese, 2017, Poor Physical Performance Predicts Future Onset of Depression in Elderly People: Progetto Veneto Anziani Longitudinal Study, Phys Ther, 97, 659, 10.1093/ptj/pzx017 · DOI
  46. Wee, 2019, Loneliness amongst low-socioeconomic status elderly Singaporeans and its association with perceptions of the neighbourhood environment, International journal of environmental research and public health, 16, 967, 10.3390/ijerph16060967 · DOI
  47. Wilson, 2007, Loneliness and risk of Alzheimer disease, Archives of general psychiatry, 64, 234, 10.1001/archpsyc.64.2.234 · DOI · Paper page

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Metadata

Authors
Solmi, M., Veronese, N., Galvano, D., Favaro, A., Ostinelli, E. G., Noventa, V., Favaretto, E., Tudor, F., Finessi, M., Shin, J. I., Smith, L., Koyanagi, A., Cester, A., Bolzetta, F., Cotroneo, A., Maggi, S., Demurtas, J., De Leo, D., & Trabucchi, M.
Affiliations
  • University of Padua (IT)
  • Regione del Veneto (IT)
  • University of Milan (IT)
  • Yonsei University (KR)
  • Anglia Ruskin University (GB)
  • Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
  • Ospedale Maria Vittoria (IT)
  • National Research Council (IT)
  • University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (IT)
  • University of Rome Tor Vergata (IT)
Corresponding author
Veronese, Nicola
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Affective Disorders
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-06
Volume
271
Pages
131-138
ISSN
0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jad.2020.03.075
OpenAlex
W3017177466
Cited by
227
References
18
Citations by year
2026: 24 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 5
FWCI
3.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Repository of the University of Primorsk (University of Primorska) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • Anglia Ruskin Research Online (Anglia Ruskin University) (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Nova Science Publishers (Nova Science Publishers, Inc.) (submittedVersion)
  • Griffith Research Online (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
National Institute for Health and Care Research (RP-2017-08-ST2-006)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
Keywords
loneliness, risk factors, health outcomes, dementia, paranoia, psychotic symptoms, suicide attempts, depressive symptoms, social contact, socioeconomic status, chronic disease, age, sex differences, level of evidence
MeSH terms
Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Loneliness, Risk Factors, Odds Ratio, Observational Studies as Topic

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review