Friendships, loneliness and psychological well-being in older adults: A limit to the benefit of the number friendships.

Objectives: To examine the relationship between number of friends and loneliness, depression, anxiety and stress in older adults. Methods: Data were obtained from 335 older adults via completion of an online survey. Measures included loneliness (UCLA Version 3), depression, stress and anxiety (DASS-21). Participants also reported their number of close friends. Results: Regression analysis revealed a negative curvilinear relationship between number of friends and each of the measures tested. Breakpoint analysis demonstrated a threshold for the effect of number of friends on each of the measures (loneliness = 4, depression = 2, anxiety = 3, stress = 2). Discussion: The results suggest that there is a limit to the benefit of increasing the number of friends in older adults for each of these measures. Elucidating these thresholds can enable loneliness and psychological well-being interventions to be more targeted.