Health and social determinants of loneliness in older adults

PRIETO FLORES, M.E.; FORJAZ, M.J.; FERNANDEZ-MAYORALAS, G.; ROJO-PEREZ, F.; MARTINEZ-MARTIN, P.

Congreso; IX ISQOLS Conference. Quality of Life Studies: Measures and Goals of the Progress of Societies; 2009

It is well known that social relationships positively contribute to quality of life. This paper focuses on loneliness as it is affected by health and social characteristics in old age. To analyze this association, a logistic regression model was applied to a nationally-representative sample of 1.106 people aged 60 years or more, living in family housing, from a Survey of Quality of Life in Spain. The 6-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale for emotional and social loneliness was used as a dependent variable. The results showed a higher probability of feeling lonely among those older adults living alone (odds ratio OR = 2.8, 95% confidence interval CI: 2.1-3.8) or living with others but in the absence of a partner (OR=2.0, CI: 1.4-2.9), perceiving a poor (OR=2.4, CI: 1.3-4.5) or fair health status (OR= 1.7, CI: 1.3-2.3), needing help for activities of daily living (OR=1.5, CI: 1.0-2.0), and having no (OR=1.5, CI: 1.1-2.1) or occasional (OR=1.5, CI:1.1-2.3) face-to-face contacts with family, friends or neighbors. This work has potential to inform social policy about the risk of loneliness among older adults in Spain.