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Dyadic Loneliness and Changes to HbA1c Among Older US Couples: The Role of Marital Support as Stress Buffer

Jeffrey E Stokes1, Adrita Barooah1

  • 1Department of Gerontology, John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA.

Journal of Aging and Health
|April 13, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Loneliness in either spouse can worsen long-term blood sugar control (HbA1c), especially with low marital support. Good marital support may protect against these negative health effects.

Area of Science:

  • Gerontology
  • Psychology
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Loneliness is a psychosocial stressor with health implications.
  • Marital support may mitigate the health effects of loneliness.
  • Understanding the impact of dyadic loneliness on cardiometabolic health is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine if an individual's or their partner's loneliness predicts changes in HbA1c over four years.
  • To investigate if marital support moderates the relationship between loneliness and HbA1c changes.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of data from 1,854 older couples from the Health and Retirement Study.
  • Utilized actor-partner interdependence models to analyze psychosocial and biomarker data.
  • Longitudinal study design with two timepoints over four years.

Main Results:

  • Neither individual nor partner loneliness predicted overall HbA1c changes.
  • Significant interactions revealed that own and partner's loneliness predicted increased HbA1c.
  • These effects were observed specifically in individuals reporting below-average marital support.

Conclusions:

  • Both personal and partner's loneliness can negatively impact long-term cardiometabolic health (HbA1c).
  • The detrimental effects of loneliness on health are contingent upon the perceived quality of marital support.
  • Marital support plays a critical role in buffering the cardiometabolic consequences of loneliness.

Keywords:
biomarkerscardiovascular diseasemarriagewell-being

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