Campbell, Charlotte L;
(2023)
A biosocial approach to healthy ageing: the interplay between social isolation and inflammation.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Background: An individual’s social relationships are consistently shown to be associated with many aspects of health, especially in the context of healthy ageing. Social isolation of older adults is associated with mortality and a range of mental and physical health problems. One possible mechanism implicated in the process of social isolation affecting health is chronic inflammation, a widespread phenomenon in older people that is a known risk factor for a wide range of health conditions. / Methods: Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) was used to explore the associations between social isolation and intrinsic capacity, and whether inflammation was a mediator of this relationship. First, a measure of healthy ageing was operationalised based upon the intrinsic capacity (IC), which refers to capacity in 5 domains of function: cognition, locomotion, sensory, vitality, and psychological. Item response theory was used to generate an IC score in three waves of ELSA spanning 8 years. Latent growth curve models tested the association between social isolation and intrinsic capacity before cross-lagged panel models were used to test the possible mediation effect of inflammation, both using full information maximum likelihood to handle missing data. / Results: The novel IC score was associated with key sociodemographic and health-related covariates and predicted subsequent difficulties with ADLs and IADLs, hospital admission and mortality. Lower social isolation was associated with higher baseline levels of IC but a steeper decline in IC over time. Inflammation was not found to mediate the association between social isolation and IC, but a bidirectional relationship between inflammation and IC was uncovered. / Conclusions: Inflammation is not likely a key mechanism for social isolation to affect healthy ageing. Policy to reduce social isolation may not slow declines in health but could give older adults a better “starting point” and, therefore, more time in better health.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | A biosocial approach to healthy ageing: the interplay between social isolation and inflammation |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute > IOE - Closer |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10175692 |
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