Loneliness, Living Alone, and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Among Older Adults in China

Older adults are prone to live alone and feel lonely. The main objective of this study was to assess the associations of loneliness and living alone with cardiovascular disease (CVD) among community-dwelling older individuals in China.

We conducted a longitudinal analysis on 3 661 participants aged older than 65 years from the latest 2014 and 2018 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the associations of loneliness and living alone with CVD risk, with adjustment for confounding factors.

A total of 616 incident CVD cases were identified during follow-up. Participants who reported feeling lonely experienced a 28% increased risk of developing CVD after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, and baseline health status (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01-1.62; ptrend = .046). In contrast, no significant association was observed between living alone and CVD risk. Subgroup analyses showed that among those individuals who lived alone, often feeling lonely doubled the risk of CVD compared to never being lonely (HR: 2.17, 95% CI: 1.20-3.93; ptrend = .007).

Loneliness was an independent risk factor for CVD among Chinese older adults. Our findings underscore the importance of addressing loneliness in the prevention of CVD among older individuals, especially those who live alone.