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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Loneliness, health and depression in older males | | Author(s) | F M Alpass, S Neville |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 7, no 3, May 2003 |
| Pages | pp 212-216 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Older men ; Loneliness ; Health [elderly] ; Ill health ; Depression ; Correlation ; New Zealand. |
| Annotation | Loneliness has been related to chronic illness and self-rated health in older people, and researchers suggest that there is an important relationship between loneliness and psychological well-being in older people, particularly for depression. 216 older men aged 65+ in New Zealand completed self-report measures of loneliness, social support, depression and physical health. While regression analysis showed that a diagnosis of illness or disability was unrelated to depression, self-reported health was associated with depression: those reporting poorer health experienced greater depression. The most significant relationship to depression was that of loneliness, with higher scores being reported on the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) for lonelier men. Although research suggests that depression is often a response to declining health and functional impairment in older people, the present findings suggest that social isolation may also influence the experience of depression. Age-related losses such as loss of professional identity, physical mobility and the inevitable loss of family and friends can affect a person's ability to maintain relationships and independence, which in turn may lead to a higher incidence of depressive symptoms. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030806217 A |
| Classmark | BC: DV: CC: CH: ENR: 49: 7YN |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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