Loneliness and Health: The Moderating Effect of Cross-Cultural Individualism/Collectivism

Abstract

Objectives: The adverse health effects of loneliness are well documented, but less is known about cultural moderators of this relationship. Contributing to the literature, we examined whether cross-cultural differences in individualism moderate the effect of loneliness on health. Methods: We used population-based longitudinal data of 14 countries (N = 40,797), as provided by the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe data. Multilevel regression analyses were employed. Moderating effects were analyzed for multiple health outcomes: activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, grip strength, life satisfaction, depression, memory performance, verbal fluency, and numeracy. Results: Cultural individualism significantly moderated the effect of loneliness on health regarding most health outcomes. In general, the effect of loneliness on health became stronger in less individualistic/more collectivistic countries. Discussion: Cultural individualism proved to be one important moderator of the loneliness-health relationship. As previous studies mostly used samples from highly individualistic countries, the current literature might severely underestimate the global public health burden of loneliness.

Keywords: collectivism; cross-cultural; health; individualism; loneliness.