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.