Social participation, loneliness, and physical inactivity over time: evidence from SHARE.

Objectives: We aimed to explore the reciprocal effects of social participation, loneliness, and physical inactivity over a period of 6 years in a representative sample of European adults over 50 years old.

Design: A longitudinal study with a six-year follow-up period was conducted.

Setting: Four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe project were used.

Participants: This study includes 64,887 participants from Europe and Israel, who were aged 50 or older at the first time.

Measurements: The relationship between participation in social activities, loneliness and physical inactivity was analyzed, controlling for age, gender, and disability. A series of cross-lagged panel models (CLPMs) were applied to analyze the relationships among these variables.

Results: A CLPM with equal autoregressive cross-lagged effects across waves was the best fit to the data (χ² = 7137.8, CFI = .972, RMSEA = .049, SRMR = .036). The autoregressive effects for the three variables showed high stability across waves, and all the cross-lagged effects in the model were statistically significant. Social activity and physical inactivity maintained a strong negative cross-lagged effect, while their cross-lagged effects on loneliness were comparatively smaller. Social activity had a positive cross-lagged effect on loneliness, while physical inactivity had a negative cross-lagged effect on loneliness.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of promoting physical activity and social participation and addressing loneliness through targeted interventions in older adults.