The role of social isolation in the relationship between widowhood and depressive symptomatology. A comparison among the widowed and married oldest old in Germany

Purpose To investigate the effect of social isolation on depressive symptoms for widowed and married old people.

Methods Data from the longitudinal “German Study on Ageing, Cognition and Dementia in Primary Care Patients” (AgeCoDe) and its follow-up study “Needs, health service use, costs and health-related quality of life in a large sample of oldest-old primary care patients (85+)” (AgeQualiDe). Depressive symptoms were assessed with the 15-item version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). The group was aligned of married and widowed people in old age and education through entropy balancing. Linear mixed models were used to examine the frequency of occurrence of depressive symptoms for widowed and married elderly people depending on the risk of social isolation.

Results The average age of the participants at the start of the study was 86 years. 437 (63.06%) of the sample were female. Our study shows that widowhood alone does not lead to an increased occurrence of depressive symptoms. Widowed people who are also at risk of social isolation, however, have significantly more depressive symptoms than those without risk. In the married group, women have significantly more depressive symptoms than men, but isolated and non-isolated do not differ.

Conclusions Especially for people who have lost their spouses, the social network changes significantly and increases the risk for social isolation. This represents a risk factor for the occurrence of depressive symptoms.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
02. September 2021