Emotional and instrumental social support and older adults’ depressive symptoms: collaborative individual participant data meta-analysis of 11 population-based studies of aging - Takeaways - MDSpire

Emotional and instrumental social support and older adults’ depressive symptoms: collaborative individual participant data meta-analysis of 11 population-based studies of aging

  • By

  • Suraj Samtani

  • Gowsaly Mahalingam

  • Ben C P Lam

  • Darren M Lipnicki

  • Katya Numbers

  • Maria Fernanda Lima-Costa

  • Sergio Luis Blay

  • Erico Castro Costa

  • Shifu Xiao

  • Steffi Reidel-Heller

  • Susanne Röhr

  • Alexander Pabst

  • Nikolaos Scarmeas

  • Mary Yannakoulia

  • Mary Kosmidis

  • Murali Krishna

  • Kalyanaraman Kumaran

  • Suzana Shahar

  • Tze Pin Ng

  • Roger Ho

  • Ki-Woong Kim

  • Ingmar Skoog

  • Jenna Najar

  • Therese Rydberg Sterner

  • Mary Ganguli

  • Chung-Chou Ho Chang

  • Tiffany F Hughes

  • Perminder S Sachdev

  • Henry Brodaty

  • For the Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium (COSMIC)

  • July 10, 2025

  • 0 min

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  • 1

    Emotional social support is significantly associated with lower depressive symptoms in older adults, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally.

  • 2

    Instrumental social support does not show a significant association with depressive symptoms in older adults, according to the meta-analysis.

  • 3

    The study analyzed individual participant data from 11 aging studies, involving 23,973 adults across various countries.

  • 4

    Cultural differences may influence the relationship between social support and depressive symptoms, necessitating further exploration.

  • 5

    Findings suggest that interventions aimed at increasing emotional support could help reduce depression risk among older adults.

Original Source(s)

Emotional and instrumental social support and older adults’ depressive symptoms: collaborative individual participant data meta-analysis of 11 population-based studies of aging

  • by Suraj Samtani, Gowsaly Mahalingam, Ben C P Lam, Darren M Lipnicki, Katya Numbers, Maria Fernanda Lima-Costa, Sergio Luis Blay, Erico Castro Costa, Shifu Xiao, Steffi Reidel-Heller, Susanne Röhr, Alexander Pabst, Nikolaos Scarmeas, Mary Yannakoulia, Mary Kosmidis, Murali Krishna, Kalyanaraman Kumaran, Suzana Shahar, Tze Pin Ng, Roger Ho, Ki-Woong Kim, Ingmar Skoog, Jenna Najar, Therese Rydberg Sterner, Mary Ganguli, Chung-Chou Ho Chang, Tiffany F Hughes, Perminder S Sachdev, Henry Brodaty, For the Cohort Studies of Memory in an International Consortium (COSMIC)

  • July 10, 2025

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