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. 2025 Mar 18;13(1):264.
doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-02574-7.

Exclusionary states in older age and their temporary effects on cognitive decline

Georgios Pavlidis  1   2
Affiliations

Exclusionary states in older age and their temporary effects on cognitive decline

Georgios Pavlidis. BMC Psychol. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Exclusion from social relations (ESR) describes severe states of social isolation in older age that may be associated with poorer cognitive outcomes. Previous studies on cognitive aging provide mixed evidence for the effects of social isolation and loneliness in shaping cognitive outcomes among older adults. In addition, the joint consideration of social isolation and loneliness remains rarely used in the empirical examination of cognitive aging, whereas an exclusionary perspective is missing.

Methods: Using a sample (N = 7,830) from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of three ESR states in older age (ESR and lonely, ESR but not lonely, not ESR but lonely) on episodic memory. Living alone or without a partner, being active in the labor market, and social participation were also included as exclusionary states in linear mixed models with health, demographics, and socioeconomic factors as covariates.

Results: Cross-sectionally, ESR states in older age are associated with worse episodic memory independent of loneliness. There was no evidence for longitudinal effects between ESR states at baseline and episodic memory slopes over time.

Conclusions: It was concluded that the negative effects of loneliness-typified ESR states on cognitive aging may be temporary and reversible, as a function of older adults' transition in-and-out of these exclusionary states.

Keywords: Episodic memory; Exclusion; Loneliness; Social relations.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was based on the analysis of secondary and anonymized data from SHARE. Information about the SHARE survey procedures and its ethics approval can be found in Bergmann et al. [37]. SHARE activities related to human subjects research are guided by international research ethics principles such as the Respect Code of Practice for Socio-Economic Research and the Declaration of Helsinki. The SHARE data collection procedures are subject to continuous ethics review from the Max Planck Society’s Ethics Council (last review May 29th, 2020). All participants of the SHARE survey provide informed consent for their participation in the survey. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
States of exclusion from social relations (ESR) in older age based on measures of social isolation and loneliness. Note ESR = states of exclusion from social relations, namely scoring zero in network size; lonely are those who feel lonely sometimes or all the time, not lonely those who never feel lonely. This graph has been also published in Pavlidis [25]
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Trajectories of memory scores in older age across three waves of measurement, with age (top left), being active or not in the labor market (top right), perceived health status (bottom left), and ESR status (bottom right) as predictors. Note ESR = states of exclusion from social relations, namely scoring zero in network size; lonely are those with R-UCLA scores > 3, not lonely those with R-UCLA scores = 3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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