A longitudinal study of the relationship between loneliness and memory.

BACKGROUND

Loneliness has been associated to several negative health-related outcomes, including dementia. Literature reports a positive association between loneliness and episodic memory. However, there is lack of consensus on the plausible cause-and-effect relationship between both.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims at offering evidence on the plausible causal processes between loneliness and the episodic memory.

METHOD: We employed data from 64,861 individuals participating in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Parallel Process Latent Growth Models (PP-LGM) of loneliness and memory with five time-points were tested, controlling for the effects of age, gender, education, chronic disorders, depression and living alone.

RESULTS

Results showed initial levels of loneliness to be predictive of steeper memory decline. In contrast, initial memory levels did not exert an effect on future loneliness.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this study suggest that loneliness presents a longitudinal effect onto memory. These results have implications for intervention, as attempts to alleviate feelings of loneliness can also have beneficial effects for older adults' memory.