1549 – Correlates of elderly loneliness

Abstract

In Portugal, the number of elderlies living alone and being institutionalized are rising. Institutionalized elderlies are susceptible to loneliness. Loneliness is associated with depression, anxiety, poor sleep quality, and cognitive decline. Determining which variables predict loneliness in institutionalized elderlies may allow appropriate targeting interventions in loneliness to potentially preserve mental and cognitive health.We want to explore the prevalence of loneliness in a sample of institutionalized elderly, and determining which variables predict loneliness.Loneliness was measured using UCLA loneliness scale. We also included a measure of socio-demographic aspects and health-related variables, the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Sleep Subjective Index for Elderly.Our sample included 539 elderly (60-100 years, mean age = 80.03 ± 7.38), mostly women (75.8%), widowed (60.3%), with primary basic education (39.5%), frequenting day care center (61.0%) or living in retirement home (39.0%).The prevalence of loneliness feelings was 68.2%. Loneliness was significantly related with more anxiety and depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, and poor life satisfaction. Women and elderlies without partner had also more loneliness feelings. Loneliness was not associated with age, education, living alone/accompanied, number of social contacts, nor with cognitive performance or sensorial problems (low vision and poor hearing). After the multiple logistic regression of the significant variables, only satisfaction with live predicted loneliness (OR = 1.07, p = 0.05).In conclusion, satisfaction with live may affect feelings of loneliness. More studies with non-institutionalized are needed for appropriated targeting interventions.

Optimism and Well-Being Among Institutionalized Older Adults

“…Another characteristic related to optimism is educational level, with those having higher literacy maintaining higher levels of optimism (Achat et al, 2000;Giltay et al, 2007;Ikeda et al, 2011;Kostka & Jachimowicz, 2010). This result is predictable, considering that higher educational attainment level is linked to fewer chronic illnesses (Nilsen et al, 2014;Wilson, Yu, James, Bennett, & Boyle, 2016), more healthier behaviors (van der Berg et al, 2014), and better EWB in older people (Costa et al, 2013;Espirito-Santo et al, 2013).…”

“…However, the levels and the role of these positive variables in institutionalized settings remain to be elucidated. Traditionally, studies in these settings have focused on negative psychological variables and negative well-being aspects (e.g., Costa et al, 2013; Creighton, Davison, & Kissane, 2016; Damián, Pastor-Barriuso, & Valderrama-Gama, 2010; Desai et al, 2016; Uma devi, KavithaKiran, & Swachita, 2015; Vicente et al, 2014).…”

“…For most older people institutionalization is not the result of a free or easy decision (Bucur, Bucur, & Runcan, 2013; Friedman, Steinwachs, Rathouz, Burton, & Mukamel, 2005; Luppa et al 2012). In fact, most of the institutionalized elderly present with depressive (e.g., Damián et al, 2010; Jerez-Roig et al, 2016; Vicente et al, 2014) and anxiety symptoms (e.g., Creighton et al, 2016; Daniel, Vicente, Guadalupe, Silva, & Santo, 2015), feelings of loneliness (e.g., Costa et al, 2013; Desai et al, 2016; Vicente et al, 2014), and low levels of satisfaction with life (Pardal et al, 2013; Uma devi et al, 2015). Yet the presence of these problems is not always linked with institutionalization, as diverse sociodemographic correlates are reported for persons with anxiety (Creighton et al, 2016) and depressive symptoms (Pena, 2014; Runcan, Haţegan, Bă§rbat, & Alexiu, 2010), loneliness (Costa et al, 2013), affectivity (Espirito-Santo et al, 2013), and satisfaction with life (Pena, 2011).…”