• Initial levels of loneliness predict steeper episodic memory decline. • Initial levels of episodic memory do not affect loneliness’ trend over time. • Education protects against episodic memory decline. • Age is associated to higher loneliness and lower episodic memory over time. Loneliness has been associated to several negative health-related outcomes, including dementia. Literature reports a positive association between loneliness and episodic memory. However, there is lack of consensus on the plausible cause-and-effect relationship between both. This study aims at offering evidence on the plausible causal processes between loneliness and the episodic memory. We employed data from 64861 individuals participating in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Parallel Process Latent Growth Models (PP-LGM) of loneliness and memory with five time-points were tested, controlling for the effects of age, gender, education, chronic disorders, depression and living alone. Results showed initial levels of loneliness to be predictive of steeper memory decline. In contrast, initial memory levels did not exert an effect on future loneliness. Findings from this study suggest that loneliness presents a longitudinal effect onto memory. These results have implications for intervention, as attempts to alleviate feelings of loneliness can also have beneficial effects for older adults’ memory.
Sanz et al. (Sun,) studied this question.