In early pandemic waves, when vaccination against COVID-19 was not yet an option, distancing and reduced social contact were the most effective measures to slow down the pandemic. Changes in frequency and forms of social contact have reduced the spread of the COVID-19 virus and thus saved lives, yet there is increasing evidence for negative side effects such as mental health issues. In the present study, we investigate the development of loneliness and its predictors to examine the role of changes in social networks due to social distancing and other COVID-19-related life changes. A total of 737 participants (age range = 18–81 years) completed an online survey in three waves during the last quarter of 2020 at one-month intervals. Latent growth and multilevel modeling revealed that emotional loneliness increased over time, while social loneliness remained stable. Moreover, socially lonely individuals were likely to also develop emotional loneliness over time. Increased social distancing and sanitary measures were accompanied by decreased social interactions and loss of individuals considered SOS contacts and confidants. Changes in specific social network indicators were differentially associated with changes in emotional vs social loneliness: Loss of friends considered confidants was associated with increasing emotional loneliness, whereas loss of friends considered SOS contacts and reduced overall social interactions were related to increasing social loneliness. Lastly, individuals with more family-and-friend SOS contacts, more friends as confidants and an overall higher number of social interactions were more protected from feeling socially or emotionally lonely. Study findings enhance the understanding of underlying mechanisms differentially contributing to social and emotional loneliness and offer practical suggestions to reduce mental-health side effects of social distancing.

Background and Objectives The ubiquity of multimorbidity makes it crucial to examine the intermediary factors linking it with quality of life (QoL). The objective was to examine to what extent the association between multimorbidity and QoL was mediated by functional and emotional/mental health and how these mediation pathways differed by sociodemographic factors (age, gender, education, financial strain). Research Design and Methods Data from waves 4 to 8 of 36,908 individuals from the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were included. Multimorbidity (exposure) was defined as having two or more chronic conditions. Mediators included limitations with (instrumental) activities of daily living (ADL and IADL), loneliness, and depressive symptoms. QoL (outcome) was assessed with the CASP-12 scale. Longitudinal model-based causal mediation analyses were performed to decompose the total association between multimorbidity and QoL into direct and indirect effects. Moderated mediation analyses tested for differences in mediation pathways by sociodemographic factors. Results Multimorbidity was significantly associated with lower QoL (direct effect: b = -0.66). This association was mediated by ADL limitations (percentage mediated 0.97%), IADL limitations (3.24%), and depressive symptoms (16.70%), but not by loneliness. The mediation pathways were moderated by age, education, financial strain, and gender. Discussion and Implications ADL, IADL, and depressive symptoms are crucial intermediary factors between multimorbidity and QoL in older European adults, with changing importance according to age, education, financial strain, and gender. The findings may help to increase the QoL of individuals with multimorbidity and redirect care efforts to these factors.

Background. Multimorbidity, defined as two or more chronic conditions, negatively affects quality of life. However, little is known about the underlying pathways leading from multimorbidity to lower quality of life (QoL). Objective. The objective of this paper was to examine multiple potential mediating factors (loneliness, Activities of Daily Living [ADL], Instrumental Activities of Daily Living [IADL], depressive symptoms) in the relationship between multimorbidity and quality of life. Furthermore, we explored moderated mediation patterns by age, gender, and education. Methods. Longitudinal data were drawn from five waves (from 2011 to 2020) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We included 37,082 individuals aged 50 years and older in the analyses. The predictor (multimorbidity) and covariates were measured four and the mediators two years before the QoL outcome (CASP-12). Confounder-adjusted mediator and outcome models were fitted using mixed-effects models. The total association was decomposed into direct and indirect pathways applying causal mediation analyses with Monte-Carlo simulations. Results. Multimorbidity was associated with lower QoL four years later; 2.12%, 6.17%, and 19.90% of the association was mediated by ADL, IADL, and depressive symptoms, respectively. Mediation by loneliness was not significant. Generally, the mediation patterns were more pronounced in women and individuals with tertiary education as compared to primary and secondary. Differential mediation by age quartiles did not reveal a clear pattern. Conclusions. The results showed that depressive symptoms were the most important mediator between multimorbidity and QoL, with ADL and IADL also playing an important role.

Successful aging is a topic of world-wide interest, yet much work focuses on specific and highly industrialized countries, such as the USA. The present study investigated lay perspectives of the concept of successful aging in young, middle-aged, and older adults from Romania. Ninety-three participants aged between 20 and 84 years were asked about definitions and determinants of successful aging. Based on a previous study, codes were developed to capture common themes among the answers, resulting in 14 categories. Participants mentioned four themes on average to describe successful aging, which varied by sociodemographic, health and psychological variables: individuals of younger age, with higher levels of education, in better health and those more satisfied with their aging mentioned more themes. Regarding specific topics, Social resources and Health were mentioned most frequently, followed by Quality of life, Financial situation, and Attitudes/Mechanisms. Young adults were more likely to mention Social resources, Success/Respect, and Aging themes, while older adults mentioned more often Meaning of life themes. Finally, we found that the themes mentioned were related to self-perception of aging, particularly among older adults: Older adults more satisfied and with positive views own aging were more likely to mention Social resources, Independence, and Attitudes/Mechanisms themes, while those with negative views on aging were more likely to mention Micro-environment themes. In sum, findings support the multidimensionality of lay perspectives of successful aging and offer insights on the understanding of successful aging in Eastern Europe, including topics and links to general and personal aging experiences.

Coping strategies help individuals face stressful events and adapt to them. During the second wave of the COVID19 pandemic, individuals were confronted with increased governmental restrictions that aimed in impeding the propagation of the virus, but affected, at the same time, the life as we knew it, with negative consequences for mental health. This study aims at identifying the coping strategies that individuals used during this period, whether they changed over time and how they affected depressive symptoms in a life span sample in Switzerland. Our sample consisted of 736 individuals with age ranging between 18 and 81 years. The study was conducted in three waves with one-month intervals during the second pandemic-wave (i.e., October, November, December 2020). We used multilevel modelling to identify within-subject change and between-subject differences in depressive symptoms, with coping strategies and sociodemographic variables included as predictors. Older age, male gender, cohabiting with others, and being employed protected from feeling depressed. Results also indicated that seeking functional support, seeking emotional support, positive reappraisal and acceptance decreased, while self-distraction and depressive symptoms increased. When positive reappraisal decreased or/and when self-distraction increased, depressive symptoms also increased. This protective effect of positive reappraisal on depression differed in magnitude for younger and older individuals: Reduction in positive reappraisal was more strongly related to increases in depression for younger individuals. In sum, to adapt to the pandemic stress individuals changed the frequency of coping strategy use, but only changes in positive reappraisal and in self-distracting had an influence on depressive symptoms.