# Loneliness and Biomarkers of Physical Health Among Married Older Adults: A Longitudinal Dyadic Approach

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON · 2020 · $76,250

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Loneliness is a known risk factor for physical decline and mortality among older adults. Further,
loneliness is distinct from social isolation and has its own unique effects on health. Yet little
research has examined the potential dyadic impacts of loneliness for health among married
older couples. Although marital status can protect against loneliness, this benefit is contingent
upon marital quality. Moreover, loneliness can be “contagious” within older adults’ marriages,
spreading from one partner to the other. Thus, married older adults in lower-quality marriages –
or who have lonely partners – are at heightened risk of experiencing loneliness themselves.
Therefore, loneliness may lead to downstream harms to health for both partners in a marriage.
Potential mechanisms for such effects include: (a) stress, anxiety, or other negative health-
harming experiences that result from having a lonely partner; (b) from the contagion of
loneliness itself within marriage, and its consequent harms to health for each individual dyad
member; and (c) from the contagion of deleterious health behaviors that result from
experiencing loneliness. Using multi-wave longitudinal dyadic data from the 2006-2016 waves of
the Health and Retirement Study, the proposed research will explore each of these potential
pathways in turn, in order to demonstrate not only whether but also how loneliness gets “under
the skin” to impair older adults’ health in a dyadic context. Findings will inform future research,
policy, and practice concerning the reduction of loneliness and promotion of healthy aging
among the older population.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9986611
- **Project number:** 5R03AG064283-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Jeffrey E. Stokes
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $76,250
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9986611

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9986611, Loneliness and Biomarkers of Physical Health Among Married Older Adults: A Longitudinal Dyadic Approach (5R03AG064283-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9986611. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*