The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and accompanying lockdown restrictions impacted social life significantly. We studied associations of sociodemographic factors, mental and social health markers, and brain structure with social health trajectories during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prospective longitudinal population-based cohort study.

Community-dwelling inhabitants of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Repeated questionnaires including questions on social health were sent to Rotterdam Study participants from April 2020 onwards. Social health data at study baseline were available for 5017 participants (mean age: 68.7 ± 11.3; 56.9% women).

Determinants were assessed in routine Rotterdam Study follow-up (1990–2020), including global brain volumes in a subset of participants (N = 1720). We applied linear mixed models and generalized estimating equations to quantify associations between determinants and trajectories of loneliness, perceived social isolation and social connectedness over three time points from April 22nd to July 31st 2020.

Loneliness prevalence was 27.9% in April 2020 versus 12.6% prepandemic. Social isolation (baseline mean 4.7 ± 2.4) and loneliness scores (baseline mean 4.9 ± 1.5) decreased over time, whereas social connectedness trajectories remained stable. Depressive symptoms, female sex, prepandemic loneliness, living alone, and not owning a pet were independently associated with lower social connectedness and higher social isolation and loneliness at COVID-19 baseline, but recovery of social health was similar for all determinants. Larger intracranial volume was associated with higher social connectedness.

Despite baseline differences for specific determinants, older adults showed similar recovery of loneliness and social isolation alongside stable social connectedness over time during the pandemic. Social health is multidimensional, especially during a global health crisis.

Research suggests that religious/spiritual (R/S) matters take on increasing importance in later life and tend to be favorably associated with mental health, but religious doubt or uncertainty can undermine this salubrious relationship. Few studies assess whether social relationships, and the support contained within them, can mitigate these negative mental health consequences. The current study focuses on an important yet understudied social relationship in the context of spiritual struggles in later life: informal support from a religious pastor. Members of the clergy occupy a highly prestigious position in the church and are often a trusted resource for older adults as they confront problems.

We use two waves of longitudinal data of Christian older adults in the Religion, Health, and Aging Study (2001–2004) from the United States (N = 639) to test whether support from a pastor attenuates any detrimental mental health effects of carrying religious doubt in later life.

Results from lagged dependent variable models suggest that increases in religious doubt are associated with increases in depression over time, and that greater pastoral support attenuates the relationship between increases in religious doubt and depression, but only for men.

We highlight the need for future research to explore this important social relationship with religious clergy for older adults in confronting both spiritual and secular challenges and the importance of considering gender differences in the process. We also suggest several practical implications for religious clergy, family members, and older adults in dealing with or helping others confront spiritual struggles.

The present study examines how different lifelong employment patterns are related to social relationships in old age, and whether there are gender differences in the impact of lifelong employment patterns.

The study was based on data collected among European adults as part of the Health, Aging and Retirement Survey in Europe (SHARE) and focuses on retired adults.

The study combines data on social relationships, collected in 2015, with retrospective data on employment history (number of jobs and years of employment) collected in 2017.

The findings show that adults who worked in more jobs had overall better structural characteristics of their later life networks – they had larger social networks and were more likely to include children and friends within those networks but less likely to include their spouse. On the other hand, working in more jobs was related to less emotional closeness with the network. These results varied between men and women; women who were involved in the labor market over their life had larger social networks and tended to include friends as confidants. Among men, working for more years was related to higher emotional closeness with the social network.

The study may indicate a gendered pattern of social advantages and disadvantages to involvement in the labor market over the work course. Practitioners should consider the lifelong employment of adults to identify those who might be at risk of social isolation.

Increasingly diverse caregiver populations have prompted studies examining culture and caregiver outcomes. Still, little is known about the influence of sociocultural factors and how they interact with caregiving context variables to influence psychological health. We explored the role of caregiving and acculturation factors on psychological distress among a diverse sample of adults.

Secondary data analysis of the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).

The 2009 CHIS surveyed 47,613 adults representative of the population of California. This study included Latino and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) caregivers and non-caregivers (n = 13,161).

Multivariate weighted regression analyses examined caregiver status and acculturation variables (generational status, language of interview, and English language proficiency) and their associations with psychological distress (Kessler-6 scale). Covariates included caregiving context (e.g., support and neighborhood factors) and demographic variables.

First generation caregivers had more distress than first-generation non-caregivers (β=0.92, 95% CI: (0.18, 1.65)); the difference in distress between caregivers and non-caregivers was smaller in the third than first generation (β=-1.21, 95% CI: (-2.24, -0.17)). Among those who did not interview in English (β=1.17, 95% CI: (0.13, 2.22)) and with low English proficiency (β=2.60, 95% CI: (1.21, 3.98)), caregivers reported more distress than non-caregivers.

Non-caregivers exhibited the "healthy immigrant effect," where less acculturated individuals reported less distress. In contrast, caregivers who were less acculturated reported more distress.

We explored the influence of study partner (SP) characteristics on SP-reported neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) presence across the neurocognitive spectrum and on the prognostic utility of mild behavioral impairment (MBI).

We performed cross-sectional (n = 26,748) and longitudinal (n = 12,794) analyses using participant-SP dyad data from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center. Participants were cognitively normal (CN; n = 11,951) or had mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 5686) or dementia (n = 9111).

SPs rated NPS using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire. We used multivariable logistic regression to model the association between SP characteristics (age, sex, and relationship to participant [spouse, child, and other]) and NPS status (outcome). Cox regressions assessed SP characteristics as moderators of MBI associations with incident dementia or as predictors of incident dementia in MBI + participants only.

Among CN persons, younger, female, and spouse SPs reported NPS more frequently. In MCI, younger SPs and those who were spouses or children of participants reported higher NPS odds. For dementia participants, NPS odds were higher in female and spouse SPs. MBI associations with incident dementia were slightly weaker when SPs were older but did not depend on SP sex or relationship to participant. Among MBI + participants with spouse or child SPs, hazard for dementia was higher when compared to MBI + participants with other SPs.

SP age, sex, and relationship to participant influence NPS reporting across the neurocognitive spectrum, with potential implications for MBI prognosis. Considering SP characteristics may enhance the accuracy of NPS assessments, which may facilitate therapy planning and prognosis.