Correction to "Loneliness predicts self-reported cold symptoms after a viral challenge" by LeRoy et al. (2017).

Abstract

Reports an error in "Loneliness predicts self-reported cold symptoms after a viral challenge" by Angie S. LeRoy, Kyle W. Murdock, Lisa M. Jaremka, Asad Loya and Christopher P. Fagundes (Health Psychology, 2017[May], Vol 36[5], 512-520; see record 2017-14291-001). In the article, the authors identified more than one categorical variable (i.e., sex, cold season, marital status) in Table 2 (i.e., zeroorder correlations). As a result, the estimate between these categorical variables was not correct because it would require a chi-square analysis, rather than a correlation. The authors corrected the estimates listed in Table 2 and removed "cold season" and "marital status" from the variable column of the table. Further, the authors conducted the more appropriate chi-square test among each of the three possible categorical variable pairs (i.e., sex and marital status, sex and cold season, and marital status and cold season) and have added this information to the Table 2 note. The authors also recoded the marital status variable in a more meaningful way. Instead, the marital status variable is now coded as 0 = unmarried, 1 = married. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2017-14291-001). [Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 37(7) of Health Psychology (see record 2018-28422-002). The erratum reports the following acknowledgments that were partially omitted from the author note: Data used in this article were collected by the Laboratory for the Study of Stress, Immunity, and Disease. The data were accessed via the Common Cold Project website. Additional grants that supported the collection of these data and clinical and regulatory assistance. The full correction is listed in the erratum.] Objective: Loneliness is a well-established risk factor for poor physical health. Much less is known about how loneliness affects patient-reported outcomes (PROs), such as somatic symptoms, which are increasingly important for guiding symptom management and assessing quality of patient care. The current study investigates whether (a) loneliness and social isolation predict cold symptoms independent of each other, and (b) whether loneliness is a more robust risk factor than objective social isolation for experiencing cold symptoms.

Method: As part of a larger parent study, 213 healthy participants completed the Short Loneliness Scale (LON) and the Social Network Index (SNI) at baseline. They were given nasal drops containing rhinovirus 39 (RV39; i.e., a common cold virus), then quarantined for 5 days during which they reported on subjective cold symptoms in addition to being monitored for objective indicators of infection. Data from 160 of the participants (who were infected with the virus) were used in the present analyses.

Results: A hierarchical multiple regression revealed that baseline loneliness predicted self-reported cold symptoms over time (assessed via area under the curve), over and above demographic variables, season of participation, and depressive affect. Interestingly, social network size and diversity did not predict cold symptoms.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that the perception of loneliness is more closely linked to self-reported illness symptoms than objectively measured social isolation. Assessing psychosocial factors such as loneliness when treating and evaluating the common cold could contribute to health care practitioners' understanding of their patients' experiences with acute illness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).