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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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How much does it hurt to be lonely?
— Mental and physical differences between older men and women in the KORA-Age study | | Author(s) | A Zebhauser, L Hofmann-Xu, J Baumert |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 29, no 3, March 2014 |
| Publisher | Wiley Blackwell, March 2014 |
| Pages | pp 245-252 |
| Source | www.orangejournal.org |
| Keywords | Loneliness ; Isolation ; Older men ; Older women ; Mental health [elderly] ; Quality of life ; Life satisfaction ; Depression ; Germany. |
| Annotation | Loneliness has a deep impact on quality of life in older people although findings on sex-specific differences on the experience of loneliness remain sparse. This study compared the intensity of and factors associated with loneliness between men and women. Analyses were based on the 2008/2009 data of the KORA-Age Study, comprising 4127 participants in the age range of 64-94 years. An age-stratified random subsample of 1079 subjects participated in a face-to-face interview. Loneliness was measured by using a short German version of the UCLA-Loneliness-Scale (12 items, Likert scaled, ranging from 0 to 36 points). Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyse the associations of socio-demographic, physical and psychological factors with loneliness. The mean level of loneliness did not significantly differ between men and women. However among the oldest old (85 years or over), loneliness was higher in women. Depression, low life satisfaction and low resilience were associated significantly with loneliness, which was more pronounced in men. Living alone was not associated with loneliness, whereas lower social network was associated with a three time higher risk for feeling lonely in both men and women. The extent of loneliness was equally distributed between men and women, although women were more disadvantaged regarding living arrangements as well as physical and mental health. However loneliness was more strongly associated with adverse mental health conditions in men. These findings should be considered when developing intervention strategies to reduce loneliness. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-150529245 A |
| Classmark | DV: TP: BC: BD: D: F:59: F:5HH: ENR: 767 |
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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