The DOI matches its Crossref record; 52 of the 53 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Loneliness and cognitive function in the older adult: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Loneliness is a significant concern among the elderly, particularly in societies with rapid growth in aging populations. Loneliness may influence cognitive function, but the exact nature of the association between loneliness and cognitive function is poorly understood. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize current findings on the association between loneliness and cognitive function in older adults. METHOD: A comprehensive, electronic review of the literature was performed. Criteria for inclusion were original quantitative or qualitative research, report written in English, human participants with a mean age ≥ 60 years, and published from January 2000 through July 2013. The total number of studies included in this systematic review was ten. RESULTS: Main findings from the ten studies largely indicate that loneliness is significantly and negatively correlated with cognitive function, specifically in domains of global cognitive function or general cognitive ability, intelligence quotient (IQ), processing speed, immediate recall, and delayed recall. However, some initial correlations were not significant after controlling for a wide range of demographic and psychosocial risk factors thought to influence loneliness. CONCLUSIONS: Greater loneliness is associated with lower cognitive function. Although preliminary evidence is promising, additional studies are necessary to determine the causality and biological mechanisms underlying the relationship between loneliness and cognitive function. Findings should be verified in culturally diverse populations in different ages and settings using biobehavioral approaches.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
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?
In the citing paper
“Each of these reviews reports equivocal findings regarding the association between aspects of social connections and cognitive function from both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.”
From Social Isolation and Cognitive Function in Later Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2019) · cites this paper as [53]
In the citing paper
“Loneliness has also been shown to be associated with a wide range of physical and mental health outcomes, such as reduced cognitive function [23], depression [24–26], and mortality [3].”
In the citing paper
“with two included longitudinal studies showing an association between loneliness and the incidence of Alzheimer's disease and dementia 57, 58 .”
From An overview of systematic reviews on the public health consequences of social isolation and loneliness (2017) · cites this paper as [57]
In the citing paper
“Two systematic reviews identified that loneliness and low social participation were associated with an increased risk of dementia”
From An overview of systematic reviews on the public health consequences of social isolation and loneliness (2017) · cites this paper as [57]
In the citing paper
“| Dementia (Boss et al 2015, Kuiper et al 2015*) | | + | |”
From An overview of systematic reviews on the public health consequences of social isolation and loneliness (2017) · cites this paper as Boss et al 2015
In the citing paper
“Our findings are in line with previous studies showing a detrimental effect of loneliness on subsequent cognitive decline or dementia (Boss et al., 2015;Cacioppo and Hawkley, 2009;Gow and Mortensen, 2016;Kuiper et al., 2015;Kuiper et al., 2016;Rozzini et al., 2008;Shankar et al., 2013;Tilvis et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2011;Zhong et al., 2016;Zhong et al., 2017).”
From Does loneliness contribute to mild cognitive impairment and dementia? A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies (2019) · cites this paper as Boss et al., 2015
In the citing paper
“Boss and colleagues (2015) conducted a systematic review on loneliness and cognitive function in the ageing population and concluded that greater loneliness was associated with poorer global cognition and declines in specific cognitive domains including processing speed, immediate recall, and delayed recall.”
From Does loneliness contribute to mild cognitive impairment and dementia? A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies (2019) · cites this paper as Boss et al., 2015
Citations
Cites
Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E., & McHugh, P. R. (1975) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6 · Cited by 88,282
The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale: concurrent and discriminant validity evidence
Russell, D., Peplau, L. A., & Cutrona, C. E. (1980) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.39.3.472 · Cited by 5,173
Loneliness: the experience of emotional and social isolation
Weiss, R. S. (1974) · Cited by 2,513
Social isolation, loneliness, and all-cause mortality in older men and women
Steptoe, A., Shankar, A., Demakakos, P., & Wardle, J. (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1219686110 · Cited by 2,503
Stress-induced immune dysfunction: implications for health
Glaser, R., & Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2005) · Nature Reviews Immunology · doi:10.1038/nri1571 · Cited by 2,190
Perceived social isolation and cognition
Cacioppo, J. T., & Hawkley, L. C. (2009) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2009.06.005 · Cited by 2,144
The clinical significance of loneliness: a literature review
Heinrich, L. M., & Gullone, E. (2006) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2006.04.002 · Cited by 1,986 · cited 1×
“A previous review was focused only on the nature of loneliness within contextual frameworks and general clinical health significance of loneliness across the lifespan (Heinrich and Gullone, 2006).”
BackgroundA 6-Item Scale for Overall, Emotional, and Social Loneliness: Confirmatory Tests on Survey Data
Gierveld, J. D. J., & Tilburg, T. V. (2006) · Research on Aging · doi:10.1177/0164027506289723 · Cited by 1,467
Loneliness and Risk of Alzheimer Disease
Wilson, R. S., Krueger, K. R., Arnold, S. E., Schneider, J. A., Kelly, J. F., Barnes, L. L., Tang, Y., & Bennett, D. A. (2007) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.64.2.234 · Cited by 1,363
Influence of social network on occurrence of dementia: a community-based longitudinal study
Fratiglioni, L., Wang, H.-X., Ericsson, K., Maytan, M., & Winblad, B. (2000) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(00)02113-9 · Cited by 1,361
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 501–512 of 512
Wright, R. S., Bygrave, D. C., Allan, A. C., & Gamaldo, A. A. (2026) · Delaware Journal of Public Health · doi:10.32481/djph.2026.07.12
Hayslip, B., Maiden, R. J., & Greil, A. L. (2026) · The International Journal of Aging and Human Development · doi:10.1177/00914150261474087
The Senior to Senior program: Connecting undergraduate students and older adults for weekly chats
Tompkins, V., Golden, S., & Blakma, L. (2026) · Applied Developmental Science · doi:10.1080/10888691.2026.2710090
Better Together: Technology-Use Gaps and Loneliness in Older Adults
Elimelech, O. C., Demeter, N., & Rosenblum, S. (2026) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs16091473
Yoo‐Jeong, M., Herrschaft, R., Ramirez, C. B., Vance, D. E., Tien, P. C., Sharma, A., Jones, D. L., Weber, K. M., Ofotokun, I., Spence, A., et al. (2026) · AIDS Care · doi:10.1080/09540121.2026.2728461
Yu, B., Steptoe, A., Chen, Y., & Jia, X. (2021) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291720001026 · Cited by 3
RetractedYaşlı Yalnızlığı Çalışmaları Üzerine Metateorik Bir Gözlem
Doğan, S., & KARAGÖZ, L. (2026) · Senectus · doi:10.26650/senectus.2026.4.2.1213
Laiton-Jiménez, L. A., Abdelrahman, M., Shalev, I., Sliwinski, M. J., & Veturi, Y. (2026) · Brain Behavior & Immunity - Health · doi:10.1016/j.bbih.2026.101380
Gahona, N. E. M., Cano, I. M., & Brito, E. G. M. (2026) · Religación · doi:10.46652/rgn.v11i52.1738
Hua, J., Zhang, Y., Yuanyuan, C. H. E. N., Liu, Y., & Jingfen, J. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2026.1948241
Lai, J., Zhang, X., 张之艳, Wongpakaran, N., Wongpakaren, T., & Wang, H. (2026) · Aging & Mental Health · doi:10.1080/13607863.2026.2745103
Bogart, K. V., Ong, A. D., Hawks, Z., Shao, S., Germine, L. T., Graham, E. K., & Beck, E. D. (2026) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2026.2747128
Metadata
- Authors
- Boss, L., Kang, D.-H., & Branson, S.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (US)
- Corresponding author
- Boss, Lisa
- ORCID
- Branson, Sandy
- Venue
- International Psychogeriatrics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-04
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 541-553
- ISSN
- 1041-6102 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2120113719
- Cited by
- 513
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 31 · 2025: 56 · 2024: 57 · 2023: 94 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 3.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Psychogeriatrics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Keywords
- loneliness, cognitive function, older adults, aging, processing speed, memory retrieval, intelligence quotient, psychosocial risk factors, biological mechanisms
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Cognition, Cognition Disorders, Humans, Loneliness, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests
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
