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Loneliness and cortisol: Momentary, day-to-day, and trait associations
Open accessAbstract
In attempts to understand the social determinants of health, strong associations have been found between measures of loneliness, physiological stress processes, and physical and mental health outcomes. Feelings of loneliness are hypothesized to have implications for physiological stress processes, including activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In a community sample of young adults, multilevel modeling was used to examine whether trait and state feelings of loneliness were related to changes in levels of the stress-sensitive hormone cortisol, and whether the associations between loneliness and cortisol were mediated or moderated by the presence of concurrent depression or high levels of chronic life stress. Results indicated that trait loneliness was associated with a flattening of the diurnal cortisol rhythm. In addition, both daily and momentary state variations in loneliness were related to cortisol. Prior day feelings of loneliness were associated with an increased cortisol awakening response the next morning and momentary experiences of loneliness during the day were associated with momentary increases in cortisol among youth who also had high chronic interpersonal stress. Results were significant after covarying current depression, both chronic and momentary reports of stress, and medical and lifestyle covariates. This study expanded on prior work by investigating and revealing three different time courses of association between loneliness and HPA axis activity in young adults: trait, daily and momentary.
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“Loneliness affects youth’s diurnal cortisol, a key stress hormone [83, 84], potentially causing chronic increases in cortisol in young adulthood, leading to higher risks of depression, anxiety, inflammation, and other adverse health outcomes [85–87].”
From The prospective association of adolescent loneliness and low resilience with anxiety and depression in young adulthood: The HUNT study (2025) · cites this paper as [84]
In the citing paper
“For example, perceived social support and loneliness have been associated with variation in basal cortisol, which influences immune system, metabolic, and cardiovascular outcomes implicated in ADRD risk in older adults.39,40”
From Why the cognitive ‘fountain of youth’ may be upstream: pathways to dementia risk and resilience through social connectedness (2022) · cites this paper as [40]
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“high self-reported loneliness in humans has been associated with elevated daily cortisol output62–66 and a flattening of diurnal cortisol rhythm65, suggesting poor regulation of the HPA axis67.”
From Neural mechanisms of social homeostasis (2019) · cites this paper as [65]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Doane, L. D., & Adam, E. K.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Doane, Leah D.
- Venue
- Psychoneuroendocrinology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-04
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 430-441
- ISSN
- 0306-4530 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2841363
- OpenAlex
- W2092784420
- Semantic Scholar
- 525cf6bb865f3c34da9f7be891d327a725bfca7d
- Cited by
- 342
- References
- 64
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 4.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychoneuroendocrinology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Northwestern University
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH065652, R01 MH65652)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Keywords
- loneliness, cortisol, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, diurnal cortisol rhythm, cortisol awakening response, interpersonal stress, depression, trait loneliness, state loneliness, young adults, social determinants of health, physiological stress
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Mental Disorders, Circadian Rhythm, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Interpersonal Relations, Loneliness, Male, Medical Records, Periodicity, Stress, Psychological, Time Factors, Young Adult
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