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. 2024 Jan:115:727-736.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2023.11.022. Epub 2023 Nov 21.

Social isolation, loneliness, and inflammation: A multi-cohort investigation in early and mid-adulthood

Timothy Matthews  1 , Line Jee Hartmann Rasmussen  2 , Antony Ambler  3 , Andrea Danese  4 , Jesper Eugen-Olsen  5 , Daisy Fancourt  6 , Helen L Fisher  7 , Kasper Karmark Iversen  8 , Martin Schultz  9 , Karen Sugden  10 , Benjamin Williams  10 , Avshalom Caspi  11 , Terrie E Moffitt  11
Affiliations

Social isolation, loneliness, and inflammation: A multi-cohort investigation in early and mid-adulthood

Timothy Matthews et al. Brain Behav Immun. 2024 Jan.

Abstract

Social isolation and loneliness have been associated with poor health and increased risk for mortality, and inflammation might explain this link. We used data from the Danish TRIAGE Study of acutely admitted medical patients (N = 6,144, mean age 60 years), and from two population-representative birth cohorts: the New Zealand Dunedin Longitudinal Study (N = 881, age 45) and the UK Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study (N = 1448, age 18), to investigate associations of social isolation with three markers of systemic inflammation: C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and a newer inflammation marker, soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR), which is thought to index systemic chronic inflammation. In the TRIAGE Study, socially isolated patients (those living alone) had significantly higher median levels of suPAR (but not CRP or IL-6) compared with patients not living by themselves. Social isolation prospectively measured in childhood was longitudinally associated with higher CRP, IL-6, and suPAR levels in adulthood (at age 45 in the Dunedin Study and age 18 in the E-Risk Study), but only suPAR remained associated after controlling for covariates. Dunedin Study participants who reported loneliness at age 38 or age 45 had elevated suPAR at age 45. In contrast, E-Risk Study participants reporting loneliness at age 18 did not show any elevated markers of inflammation. In conclusion, social isolation was robustly associated with increased inflammation in adulthood, both in medical patients and in the general population. It was associated in particular with systemic chronic inflammation, evident from the consistently stronger associations with suPAR than other inflammation biomarkers.

Keywords: C-reactive protein; Inflammatory biomarkers; Interleukin-6; Loneliness; Social isolation; Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor; Systemic inflammation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: JEO is a named inventor on patents on suPAR as a prognostic biomarker. The patents are owned by Copenhagen University Hospital Amager and Hvidovre, Denmark, and is licensed to ViroGates A/S. JEO is a co-founder, shareholder, and CSO of ViroGates A/S. The remaining authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Blood levels of inflammatory biomarkers (CRP, IL-6, and suPAR) in acutely admitted medical patients from the TRIAGE cohort.
Boxes indicate medians with interquartile ranges, and whiskers indicate 95% confidence intervals. CRP and IL-6 are log-transformed (natural logarithm). CRP, C-reactive protein; IL-6, interleukin-6; suPAR, soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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