Institute for Social Science Research, Life Course Centre, University of Queensland, Indooroopilly, Queensland, Australia.
Department of Sociology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2023 Apr 1;78(4):730-735. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbad010.
Both loneliness and the use of psychotropic drugs are common in later life. Although loneliness has been found to be associated with psychotropic drug use, most studies have been cross-sectional, and we know less about their longitudinal associations.
Drawing on five waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study and two statistical approaches (fixed-effects and cross-lagged panel models), we examine longitudinal associations between loneliness and the use of prescription pain and depression/anxiety medications.
Across 57,654 observations among 20,589 respondents, 22.8% reported regular use of pain prescription medications, 17.8% regular use of depression/anxiety prescription medication, and 15.6% feeling lonely in the past week. Loneliness and the use of depression/anxiety medications were associated according to both modeling approaches, net of covariates. In years when a respondent reported feeling lonely, the odds of regular use of depression/anxiety medications were 1.42 times higher (p < .001) than in years when they did not feel lonely. Regarding reciprocation, odds of regular depression/anxiety medication use in a given wave range from 1.3 to 1.5 times higher if loneliness was reported in the prior wave. Likewise, the odds of reporting loneliness in a given wave range from 1.5 to 1.8 times higher if regular depression/anxiety medication was reported in the prior wave.
Prior loneliness predicts contemporaneous regular use of depression/anxiety prescription medications. Although this confirms the directional association found in prior studies, we found prior use of depression/anxiety medications is also associated with increased odds of loneliness, suggesting further research is needed to understand mechanisms that explain their associations and potential interventions.
孤独感和精神药物的使用在晚年都很常见。尽管已经发现孤独感与精神药物的使用有关，但大多数研究都是横断面研究，我们对它们的纵向关联知之甚少。
利用健康与退休研究的五波数据和两种统计方法（固定效应和交叉滞后面板模型），我们考察了孤独感与处方止痛药和抑郁/焦虑药物使用之间的纵向关联。
在 20589 名受访者的 57654 次观察中，22.8%的人定期使用处方止痛药，17.8%的人定期使用抑郁/焦虑症处方药，15.6%的人在过去一周感到孤独。根据两种建模方法，在控制了协变量后，孤独感和使用抑郁/焦虑症药物之间存在关联。在受访者报告感到孤独的年份中，定期使用抑郁/焦虑症药物的几率比他们不感到孤独的年份高 1.42 倍（p<.001）。关于相互关系，如果在前一波报告中孤独感，那么在给定波中定期使用抑郁/焦虑症药物的几率会高出 1.3 到 1.5 倍。同样，如果在前一波中报告了定期使用抑郁/焦虑症药物，那么在给定波中报告孤独感的几率会高出 1.5 到 1.8 倍。
先前的孤独感预测了同时期定期使用抑郁/焦虑症处方药。尽管这证实了先前研究中发现的方向性关联，但我们发现先前使用抑郁/焦虑症药物也与孤独感的几率增加有关，这表明需要进一步研究以了解解释它们关联和潜在干预措施的机制。
