Assessment of the relationship between living alone and the risk of depression based on longitudinal studies: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

BackgroundLiving alone is one of the most common psychosocial factors that may have an impact on lifestyle management and health status. Although many previous cross-sectional studies have found that living alone increases the risk of depression. However, this risk has rarely been assessed on the basis of longitudinal studies. Therefore, we will explore this relationship on the basis of longitudinal studies.MethodsWe systematically searched Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane databases up to May 2022. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled by a random-effects model using an inverse variance method.ResultsSeven studies (six cohort studies and one case-control study) were included in our study. A total of 123,859 without a history of psychosis individuals were included, and the proportion of females was 65.3%. We applied a random-effects model to minimize the heterogeneity. Overall, the pooled data suggest that people living alone are associated with an increased risk of depression compared to those who do not live alone (OR 1.42, 95%CI 1.19–1.70).ConclusionCompared to people who live with others, living alone increases the risk of depression. Only cross-sectional studies and a few longitudinal studies currently support this association; more high-quality studies will be required in the future to confirm this causal association.

Socioeconomic support, quality of life, and prognosis of frailty among the older adults

“…Living alone was found to be more likely to expose individuals to social isolation compared with living with others, potentially causing an increased risk of unsatisfactory QoL. This is consistent with results of a previous systematic review reporting living alone as a risk factor for depression, particularly in studies with a cross-sectional design [30]. Meanwhile, a previous metaanalysis reported that living alone was positively associated with an increased risk of frailty in a crosssectional study, but not in a longitudinal study [31].…”

Self-reported symptom occurrence and distress, and psychological well-being after liver transplantation – a descriptive cross-sectional study of Danish recipients

“…In our study we found no association between living alone or not and psychological well-being. As it is well known that living alone might have negative psychological consequences ( Wu et al, 2022 ), our findings highlight the need for targeted individual follow-up care and screening for psychological symptoms.…”

Psychological status of medical students and interns in the wake of the armed conflict of April 2023 in Sudan. A cross-sectional study

“…Living alone tended towards negative outcomes as expected [57][58][59][60], since living alone is a fullblown health risk where loneliness impacts negatively both the physiological and psychological health but also itself is caused by challenges to health and wellbeing. It suffices to point out that isolation is a method of torture used to break the psyche to illustrate the severity of such a casual epidemic during times of war, yet our findings were of significant AOR for Anxiety and Depression but not Insomnia and PTSD.…”