Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Aging Ment Health. 2021 Dec;25(12):2293-2297. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2020.1822285. Epub 2020 Sep 22.
The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine whether the onset and the end of obesity was associated with loneliness.
Nationally representative longitudinal data from Germany were taken from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (wave 5 to wave 7; = 10,446 observations in the analytical sample). Using the three item loneliness scale (UCLA), loneliness was measured. According to the WHO thresholds, obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 30 kg/m. Asymmetric fixed effects (FE) regressions were used.
Conventional FE regression analysis revealed that changes in obesity status were associated with changes in loneliness (men: β = -.19, < .05; women: β = .19, < .05). Asymmetric FE regressions showed that in men the onset of obesity was associated with a decrease in loneliness (β = -.31, < .05), whereas the end of obesity was not associated with loneliness. Asymmetric FE regressions showed that in women, the onset of obesity was associated with an increase in loneliness (β = .33, < .01), whereas the end of obesity was not associated with loneliness.
Findings showed that the onset of obesity has different consequences in terms of loneliness for older women and men in Germany, whereas the end of obesity was not associated with changes in loneliness scores. We recommend that future studies should distinguish between the onset and the end of obesity - which comes along with important practical implications. When older women report transitions to obesity, efforts to prevent loneliness may be of importance.
本纵向研究旨在探讨肥胖的起始和结束是否与孤独感有关。
从欧洲健康、衰老和退休调查（第 5 波至第 7 波；分析样本中共有 10446 个观察值）中获取德国全国代表性的纵向数据。采用三项孤独量表（UCLA）来测量孤独感。根据世界卫生组织的标准，肥胖定义为 BMI≥30kg/m2。采用非对称固定效应（FE）回归进行分析。
常规 FE 回归分析显示，肥胖状况的变化与孤独感的变化有关（男性：β=-.19，<.05；女性：β=.19，<.05）。非对称 FE 回归显示，在男性中，肥胖的起始与孤独感的降低有关（β=-.31，<.05），而肥胖的结束与孤独感无关。非对称 FE 回归显示，在女性中，肥胖的起始与孤独感的增加有关（β=.33，<.01），而肥胖的结束与孤独感无关。
研究结果表明，肥胖的起始对德国老年男女的孤独感有不同的影响，而肥胖的结束与孤独感的变化无关。我们建议未来的研究应区分肥胖的起始和结束，这具有重要的实际意义。当老年女性报告向肥胖的转变时，预防孤独感可能很重要。
