Asymmetric effects of obesity on loneliness among older Germans. Longitudinal findings from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

Abstract

Objectives

The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine whether the onset and the end of obesity was associated with loneliness.

Method

Nationally representative longitudinal data from Germany were taken from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (wave 5 to wave 7; n = 10,446 observations in the analytical sample). Using the three item loneliness scale (UCLA), loneliness was measured. According to the WHO thresholds, obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 30 kg/m². Asymmetric fixed effects (FE) regressions were used.

Results

Conventional FE regression analysis revealed that changes in obesity status were associated with changes in loneliness (men: β = −.19, p < .05; women: β = .19, p < .05). Asymmetric FE regressions showed that in men the onset of obesity was associated with a decrease in loneliness (β = –.31, p < .05), whereas the end of obesity was not associated with loneliness. Asymmetric FE regressions showed that in women, the onset of obesity was associated with an increase in loneliness (β = .33, p < .01), whereas the end of obesity was not associated with loneliness.

Conclusion

Findings showed that the onset of obesity has different consequences in terms of loneliness for older women and men in Germany, whereas the end of obesity was not associated with changes in loneliness scores. We recommend that future studies should distinguish between the onset and the end of obesity – which comes along with important practical implications. When older women report transitions to obesity, efforts to prevent loneliness may be of importance.

Keywords:

• Loneliness
• obesity
• excess weight
• social isolation
• social exclusion
• overweight
• adiposity
• SHARE

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

Data were obtained from a third party and cannot be made publicly available. More specifically, data for the study came from the SHARE project and are available to all researchers for purely scientific purposes upon request on their website (http://www.share-project.org/).