IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i23p15456-d980443.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Loneliness, Depression, and Genetics in the Elderly: Prognostic Factors of a Worse Health Condition?

Author

Listed:
  • María Luisa Delgado-Losada

    (Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Processes and Speech Therapy Department, Faculty of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
    Group of Neurosciences: Psychoneuroendocrinology, Neuroimaging and Molecular Genetics in Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria San Carlos (IdISSC), Hospital Clínico de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
    UCM Research Group: VALORNUT-920030, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University of Madrid, Plaza Ramón y Cajal s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Jaime Bouhaben

    (Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Processes and Speech Therapy Department, Faculty of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain)

  • Eduardo Arroyo-Pardo

    (Laboratory of Forensic and Population Genetics, Legal Medicine, Psychiatry and Pathology Department, Medicine School, Complutense University of Madrid, Plaza Ramón y Cajal s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
    Group of Forensic Sciences: Forensic Genetics and Toxicology, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria San Carlos (IdISSC), Hospital Clínico de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Aránzazu Aparicio

    (Group of Neurosciences: Psychoneuroendocrinology, Neuroimaging and Molecular Genetics in Neuropsychiatric Diseases, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria San Carlos (IdISSC), Hospital Clínico de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
    UCM Research Group: VALORNUT-920030, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University of Madrid, Plaza Ramón y Cajal s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
    Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University of Madrid, Plaza Ramón y Cajal s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Ana María López-Parra

    (Laboratory of Forensic and Population Genetics, Legal Medicine, Psychiatry and Pathology Department, Medicine School, Complutense University of Madrid, Plaza Ramón y Cajal s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
    Group of Forensic Sciences: Forensic Genetics and Toxicology, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria San Carlos (IdISSC), Hospital Clínico de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

Loneliness is considered a prognostic factor for poorer health status in the elderly. It is proposed to analyze the role of loneliness in health status in terms of various factors. A total of 1747 individuals from the pilot survey of the Aging in Spain Longitudinal Study (ELES-PS) were reviewed. ELES is a cross-sectional study for collecting health variables, food habits, socioeconomic data, and cognitive and functional capacities, which was carried out on a Spanish representative sample of noninstitutionalized persons of 50 years of age or older. Moreover, since telomere shortening is associated with cellular senescence, 35 telomere-related SNPs and cognitive impairments were analyzed. The results characterize the “solos” as males of 50–60 years, who were overweight and had lower levels of hemoglobin and neutrophils. There is also an association between five SNPs related to telomere length and BDNF. A group of people with loneliness and depression was identified with poorer health and cognitive status, poorer perception of their quality of life, poorer quality of sleep, and lower physical activity. Therefore, it follows that telomeres and BDNF play a role as intermediaries between loneliness and depression and their relationship with a worse state of health.

Suggested Citation

  • María Luisa Delgado-Losada & Jaime Bouhaben & Eduardo Arroyo-Pardo & Aránzazu Aparicio & Ana María López-Parra, 2022. "Loneliness, Depression, and Genetics in the Elderly: Prognostic Factors of a Worse Health Condition?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-29, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15456-:d:980443
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15456/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15456/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marengoni, A. & Winblad, B. & Karp, A. & Fratiglioni, L., 2008. "Prevalence of chronic diseases and multimorbidity among the elderly population in Sweden," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(7), pages 1198-1200.
    2. Christiansen, Julie & Larsen, Finn Breinholt & Lasgaard, Mathias, 2016. "Do stress, health behavior, and sleep mediate the association between loneliness and adverse health conditions among older people?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 80-86.
    3. Bao-Liang Zhong & Shu-Lin Chen & Xin Tu & Yeates Conwell, 2017. "Loneliness and Cognitive Function in Older Adults: Findings From the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 72(1), pages 120-128.
    4. Wei Huang & Xiaoyan Lei & Geert Ridder & John Strauss & Yaohui Zhao, 2013. "Health, Height, Height Shrinkage, and SES at Older Ages: Evidence from China," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 86-121, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jin Liu & Scott Rozelle & Qing Xu & Ning Yu & Tianshu Zhou, 2019. "Social Engagement and Elderly Health in China: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Huang, Wei & Zhou, Yi, 2013. "Effects of education on cognition at older ages: Evidence from China's Great Famine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 54-62.
    3. Ahsan, Md Nazmul & Maharaj, Riddhi, 2018. "Parental human capital and child health at birth in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 130-149.
    4. Janet Currie & Tom Vogl, 2013. "Early-Life Health and Adult Circumstance in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 1-36, May.
    5. Scott A. Carson, 2017. "Assessing Cumulative Net Nutrition and the Transition from 19th Century Bound to Free-Labor by Ethnic Status," CESifo Working Paper Series 6813, CESifo.
    6. Vogl, Tom S., 2014. "Height, skills, and labor market outcomes in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 84-96.
    7. Chae, Minhee & Hatton, Timothy J. & Meng, Xin, 2023. "Explaining trends in adult height in China: 1950 to 1990," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    8. Jit Hui Tan & Edimansyah Abdin & Shazana Shahwan & Yunjue Zhang & Rajeswari Sambasivam & Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar & Rathi Mahendran & Hong Choon Chua & Siow Ann Chong & Mythily Subramaniam, 2019. "Happiness and Cognitive Impairment Among Older Adults: Investigating the Mediational Roles of Disability, Depression, Social Contact Frequency, and Loneliness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Huang, Wei & Luo, Mi, 2015. "Overconfidence and Health Insurance Participation among the Elderly," IZA Discussion Papers 9481, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Puxiang Ren & Jakob Emiliussen & Regina Christiansen & Søren Engelsen & Søren Harnow Klausen, 2022. "Filial Piety, Generativity and Older Adults’ Wellbeing and Loneliness in Denmark and China," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(5), pages 3069-3090, October.
    11. Filipe Prazeres & Luiz Santiago, 2016. "The Knowledge, Awareness, and Practices of Portuguese General Practitioners Regarding Multimorbidity and its Management: Qualitative Perspectives from Open-Ended Questions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-14, November.
    12. Sohn, Kitae, 2015. "The height premium in Indonesia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Bossavie, Laurent & Alderman, Harold & Giles, John & Mete, Cem, 2021. "The effect of height on earnings: Is stature just a proxy for cognitive and non-cognitive skills?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    14. Faiz Ur Rehman & Muhammad Nasir, 2018. "In the Same Boat, but not Equals: The Heterogeneous Effects of Indirect Taxation on Child Health in Punjab-Pakistan," PIDE-Working Papers 2018:158, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    15. Osea Giuntella & Wei Han & Fabrizio Mazzonna, 2017. "Circadian Rhythms, Sleep, and Cognitive Skills: Evidence From an Unsleeping Giant," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(5), pages 1715-1742, October.
    16. Jianxing Yu & Fangying Song & Yingying Li & Zhou Zheng & Huanhuan Jia & Yuzhe Sun & Lina Jin & Xihe Yu, 2020. "Multimorbidity Analysis of 13 Systemic Diseases in Northeast China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-12, March.
    17. LaFave, Daniel & Thomas, Duncan, 2017. "Height and cognition at work: Labor market productivity in a low income setting," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 52-64.
    18. Seonghoon Kim & Belton Fleisher & Jessica Ya Sun, 2017. "The Long‐term Health Effects of Fetal Malnutrition: Evidence from the 1959–1961 China Great Leap Forward Famine," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(10), pages 1264-1277, October.
    19. Andrew Stickley & Ai Koyanagi, 2018. "Physical multimorbidity and loneliness: A population-based study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, January.
    20. McGovern, Mark E., 2014. "Comparing the relationship between stature and later life health in six low and middle income countries," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 4(C), pages 128-148.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15456-:d:980443. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.