Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults: The Moderating Effect of Resilience.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Social isolation has been recognized as a social problem with negative health consequences. Using data from 3 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, this study aimed to examine the long-term impact of social isolation on loneliness and depressive symptoms and to explore the moderating effect of resilience. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This study comprised 3,681 U.S. adults aged 60 and older at the baseline wave. Social isolation index was constructed using 5 indicators, including not married or cohabitating with a partner, no social participation, and less than monthly contacts with children, family members, or friends. Loneliness was measured by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale and depressive symptoms were measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale. The moderator of resilience was assessed by the simplified resilience score. Latent growth curve models with robust standard errors were estimated. RESULTS: The results of latent growth curve models showed that social isolation was significantly associated with more initial loneliness and depressive symptoms. However, social isolation was associated with a slower increasing rate of loneliness, but no significant relationship with the change rate of depressive symptoms. Furthermore, resilience significantly buffered the negative effect of social isolation on the initial level of depressive symptoms. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: The findings underscore the importance of enacting strategies and interventions targeting resilience to address social isolation and its negative consequences among older adults.

Assessing and developing the evidence base of macro practice interventions with a community and neighborhood focus.

Assessing and developing the evidence base of macro practice with a community and neighborhood focus is challenging because of the lack of rigorous studies, difficulties posed by conducting research at the community level, and lack of evaluation capacity at multiple levels of practice. Current evidence on community interventions is summarized. Resources for assessing community interventions are presented, along with strategies for searching, appraising, and synthesizing the evidence. Challenges and potential solutions to developing the evidence base of community interventions are discussed, including defining and analyzing complex community interventions, developing rigorous research designs, and building the evaluation capacity of community-based organizations.