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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Social isolation, loneliness and health in old age
— a scoping review | | Author(s) | Emilie Courtin, Martin Knapp |
| Journal title | Health and Social Care in the Community, vol 25, no 3, May 2017 |
| Publisher | Wiley, May 2017 |
| Pages | pp 799-812 |
| Source | wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hsc |
| Keywords | Isolation [elderly] ; Loneliness ; Health [elderly] ; Mental health [elderly] ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | The health and wellbeing consequences of social isolation and loneliness in old age are increasingly being recognised. The purpose of this scoping review was to take stock of the available evidence and to highlight gaps and areas for future research. Searches were carried out on nine databases for empirical papers investigating the impact of social isolation and/or loneliness on a range of health outcomes in old age. The search yielded 11,736 articles, of which 128 items from 15 countries were included in the review. There was a particular focus on the definitions and measurements of the two concepts, associations and causal mechanisms, differences across population groups and interventions. The evidence was largely US-focused, and loneliness was more researched than social isolation. A recent trend was the investigation of the comparative effects of social isolation and loneliness. Depression and cardiovascular health were the most often researched outcomes, followed by wellbeing. Almost all but two studies found a detrimental effect of isolation or loneliness on health. However causal links and mechanisms are difficult to demonstrate and further investigation is warranted. The review found a paucity of research focusing on at risk sub-groups and in the area of interventions. Future research should aim to better link the evidence on the risk factors for loneliness and social isolation and the evidence on their impact on health. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-170609215 A |
| Classmark | F:TP: DV: CC: D: 64A |
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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