Loneliness Predicts Increased Blood Pressure: Five-Year Cross-Lagged Analyses in Middle-Aged and Older Adults

By Louise C. Hawkley, R. Thisted, Christopher M. Masi, John T. Cacioppo. Psychology and Aging, 2010

662 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Loneliness is a prevalent social problem with serious physiological and health implications. However, much of the research to date is based on cross-sectional data, including our own earlier finding that loneliness was associated with elevated blood pressure. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the effect of loneliness accumulates to produce greater increases in SBP over a four-year period than are observed in less lonely individuals. A population-based sample of 229 50–68 year-old White, Black, and Hispanic men and women in the Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study was tested annually for each of five consecutive years. Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed that loneliness at study onset predicted increases in SBP 2, 3, and 4 years later (B = 0.152, SE = 0.091, p < .05, one-tailed). These increases were cumulative such that higher initial levels of loneliness were associated with greater increases in SBP over a 4-year period. The effect of loneliness on SBP was independent of age, gender, race/ethnicity, cardiovascular risk factors, medications, health conditions, and the effects of depressive symptoms, social support, perceived stress, and hostility.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Health, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/97dc84f5f267723d4e16ee07e289238368aea1f3

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In General Health Professions

In Health

In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

Citations in the corpus

Social isolation, loneliness and health in old age: a scoping review (2017, positive): “…panel data, 23 provided a basis for inference about causal links by using, for instance, a cross-lagged panel analysis (e.g. Cacioppo et al. 2010, Hawkley et al. 2010b, Luo et al. 2012) or by adjusting for health status at baseline (e.g. Michael et al. 2001, Eng et al. 2002, Bisschop et al.…”
Social Isolation, Loneliness and Health Among Older Adults (2012, background): “Feelings of loneliness have been associated with higher risk of elevated blood pressure (Hawkley et al., 2010), increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical activity (Adam, Hawkley, Kudielka, & Cacioppo, 2006), and diminished immunity (KiecoltGlaser et al., 1984).”
Associations between loneliness and perceived social support and outcomes of mental health problems: a systematic review (2018, background): “They are also predictive of development of coronary heart disease and stroke [7], increases in systolic blood pressure [8, 9], and chronic pain [10, 11] in longitudinal studies.”
Loneliness Matters: A Theoretical and Empirical Review of Consequences and Mechanisms (2010, positive): “, 1 year) fluctuations in loneliness were not significant predictors of SBP changes over 1-year intervals, but a trait-like component of loneliness present at study onset contributed to greater increases in SBP over 2-, 3-, and 4-year intervals [22].”
Neural Correlates of Susceptibility to Group Opinions in Online Word-of-Mouth Recommendations (2015, background): “Likewise, humans have developed alarm systems that detect conflict and respond to social threats (Cacioppo et al. 2002; Eisenberger 2012; Hawkley et al. 2003, 2010; Peters et al. 2011).”