key: cord-0794885-ldxtc7i4 authors: Green, Michael J.; Whitley, Elise; Niedzwiedz, Claire L.; Shaw, Richard J.; Katikireddi, S. Vittal title: Social contact and inequalities in depressive symptoms and loneliness among older adults: A mediation analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing date: 2021-01-12 journal: SSM Popul Health DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100726 sha: ebb625e82374236db2bc72204e8267a8c17cfecb doc_id: 794885 cord_uid: ldxtc7i4 BACKGROUND: Social contact, including remote contact (by telephone, email, letter or text), could help reduce social inequalities in depressive symptoms and loneliness among older adults. METHODS: Data were from the 8th wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (2016/17), stratified by age (n = 1578 aged <65; n = 4026 aged 65+). Inverse probability weighting was used to estimate average effects of weekly in-person and remote social contact on depressive symptoms (score of 3+ on 8-item CES-D scale) and two measures of loneliness (sometimes/often feels lonely vs hardly ever/never; and top quintile of UCLA loneliness scale vs all others). We also estimated controlled direct effects of education, partner status, and wealth on loneliness and depressive symptoms under two scenarios: 1) universal infrequent (