{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,14]],"date-time":"2026-10-14T16:42:20Z","timestamp":1791996140875,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":104,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,24]],"date-time":"2026-01-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769212800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Recovery and Resilience Plan"},{"name":"European Union\u2014NextGenerationEU","award":["PE00000003"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PE00000003"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Research across multiple disciplines has explored how nutrition is shaped by social isolation and feelings of loneliness, especially in the elderly population. Evidence from neuroscience highlights that loneliness may alter eating patterns, encouraging emotional eating or other compensatory food behaviors. Conversely, isolation from social contexts is often linked to a reduced variety of nutrient intake. This study set out to examine how psychosocial aspects, particularly social connectedness and feeling alone, relate to adherence to the Mediterranean diet among older adults residing in Sicily, southern Italy. Methods: Dietary habits of 883 adults were collected through food frequency questionnaires and assessed for adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Loneliness was measured through a targeted question from a standardized tool designed to capture depressive symptoms. Direct questions asked whether participants were engaged in social networks, such as family, friends and neighborhoods, or religious communities, in order to assess objective aloneness. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess associations between variables of interest. Results: After accounting for potential confounders, both loneliness and aloneness showed an association with stronger adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Specifically, individuals experiencing loneliness and aloneness were less likely to have high adherence to the Mediterranean diet (OR = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.15, 0.51, and OR = 0.26, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.54, respectively). Conclusions: These findings underscore the importance of fostering social engagement among older populations, who may particularly benefit from maintaining active social ties to support healthier eating behaviors.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu18030387","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,26]],"date-time":"2026-01-26T11:14:07Z","timestamp":1769426047000},"page":"387","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Loneliness, Aloneness, and Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in Southern Italian Individuals"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5809-5706","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Justyna","family":"Godos","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1571-5327","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giuseppe","family":"Caruso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departmental Faculty of Medicine, UniCamillus-Saint Camillus International University of Health Sciences, 00131 Rome, Italy"},{"name":"IRCCS San Camillo Hospital, 30126 Venice, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marco Antonio","family":"Olvera-Moreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Carrera de Medicina, Universidad Cat\u00f3lica de Santiago de Guayaquil, Av. Pdte. Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola, Guayaquil 090615, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8151-9132","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francesca","family":"Giampieri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Sciences, Universit\u00e0 Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy"},{"name":"Research Group on Food, Nutritional Biochemistry and Health, Universidad Europea del Atl\u00e1ntico, Isabel Torres 21, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Joint Laboratory on Food Science, Nutrition, and Intelligent Processing of Foods, Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy, Universidad Europea del Atl\u00e1ntico, Spain and Jiangsu University, China at Polytechnic University of Marche, 60130 Ancona, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kilian","family":"Tutusaus","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Group on Food, Nutritional Biochemistry and Health, Universidad Europea del Atl\u00e1ntico, Isabel Torres 21, 39011 Santander, Spain"},{"name":"Universidad de La Romana, La Romana 22000, Dominican Republic"},{"name":"Universidade Internacional do Cuanza, Cuito EN250, Bi\u00e9, Angola"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Melannie","family":"Toral-Noristz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Escuela de Medicina, Universidad Esp\u00edritu Santo, Samborond\u00f3n 0901952, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4865-6469","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Raynier","family":"Zambrano-Villacres","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Direcci\u00f3n de Investigaci\u00f3n, Universidad ECOTEC, Km.13.5 Samborond\u00f3n, Samborond\u00f3n 092302, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alice","family":"Leonardi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rosa M. G.","family":"Balzano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0644-0755","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fabio","family":"Galvano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-5470-142X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sabrina","family":"Castellano","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, 95124 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3930-5285","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giuseppe","family":"Grosso","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"2451","article-title":"The impact of population ageing: A review","volume":"50","author":"Ismail","year":"2021","journal-title":"Iran. 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