Institute of Clinical Medicine/Psychiatry, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Nord J Psychiatry. 2021 Oct;75(7):553-557. doi: 10.1080/08039488.2021.1894231. Epub 2021 Mar 15.
There is growing interest in loneliness and its various adverse effects on mental and physical health. While depression is one of the adverse health effects associated with loneliness, there have been some limitations in previous studies: 1) Research has mostly been carried out either in depressed patient samples or in general population samples with depressive symptoms as an outcome, 2) the follow-up times have been rather short, and 3) the mechanisms through which loneliness associates with depression are still unclear.
We examined the association between loneliness and incident depression and possible mechanisms underlying this association in a population-based sample of middle-aged men (=2339; mean age 53; mean follow-up time 23.5years). The association between loneliness and depression was explored with Cox proportional hazard analysis, and mediation analyses were performed with the PROCESS macro for SPSS. We used 13 health and lifestyle-related variables as covariates for adjustments in multivariate models and as mediators in simple mediation models.
Those with depression as an outcome (=99) had significantly higher loneliness scale scores at baseline, and baseline loneliness was associated with depression, despite adjustments for potential confounding factors. No mediating factors were observed.
There was a strong direct association between loneliness and the incidence of depression. Based on our results, we encourage future researchers to look for possible mediators in wider range of variables.
孤独及其对身心健康的各种不良影响日益受到关注。虽然抑郁是与孤独相关的不良健康影响之一，但之前的研究存在一些局限性：1）研究大多在抑郁患者样本或有抑郁症状的一般人群样本中进行，作为结果；2）随访时间相当短；3）孤独与抑郁相关的机制仍不清楚。
我们在一项基于人群的中年男性样本（=2339；平均年龄 53；平均随访时间 23.5 年）中研究了孤独与新发抑郁之间的关联以及这种关联的潜在机制。使用 Cox 比例风险分析探讨孤独与抑郁之间的关联，并使用 SPSS 的 PROCESS 宏进行中介分析。我们使用 13 个与健康和生活方式相关的变量作为多变量模型的调整因素和简单中介模型的中介因素。
以抑郁为结果的患者（=99）在基线时孤独量表评分明显更高，并且基线孤独与抑郁相关，尽管对潜在混杂因素进行了调整。没有观察到中介因素。
孤独与抑郁的发生之间存在强烈的直接关联。基于我们的结果，我们鼓励未来的研究人员在更广泛的变量范围内寻找可能的中介因素。
