Social Isolation and Loneliness: Differences between Older Rural and Urban Manitobans

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to identify predictors of social isolation and loneliness for very old rural and urban adults. With data from the 1996 Aging in Manitoba Study (N = 1,868; age range 72–104), separate multiple regression models were constructed for rural and urban sub-samples, using the life space index (LSI) to measure social isolation as one outcome, and a loneliness index created by the authors from a combination of items to measure loneliness as a second outcome. Different factors were found to predict the outcomes for the two sub-samples. The models with isolation as the outcome produced five predictors for the rural sub-sample and three for the urban sub-sample. Only living alone was the same for both groups. The models with loneliness as the outcome produced five predictors for the rural sub-sample and two for the urban sub-sample, again with only one factor in common – four or more chronic illnesses. We conclude that health and social factors are important predictors of social isolation and loneliness, and sensitivity to these factors may improve the experience of older adults.

The demographics of loneliness among older people in Perth, Western Australia

“…4,16]. Similarly consistent are reports of the negative relationship between perceived health and loneliness [4,5,7,8,11,16].…”

Why Do Older People in New Zealand Enter Residential Care Rather than Choosing to Remain at Home, and Who Makes that Decision?

“…Being home alone and loneliness are not necessarily synonymous; however, the two did have a statistically significant relationship. The findings from this study concurred with the findings that social isolation is often associated with loneliness, but is not always the cause (Havens et al 2004). Within this study, older people were more concerned about how they would cope on their own, rather than being lonely per se.…”

“…Within this study, older people were more concerned about how they would cope on their own, rather than being lonely per se. While people with high support needs have a much higher likelihood of being lonely than others (Havens et al 2004), it was interesting that this study found that people with high support needs living at home were only marginally lonelier than their counterparts in residential care. People living alone are reportedly more robust, but are also more at risk from poor health outcomes (Lichtenberg et al 2003), and more prone to admission to residential care (Greene and Ondrich 1990).…”

El sentimiento de soledad en la vejez

“…El sentimiento de soledad obedece a una insatisfacción motivada por la falta de ciertas relaciones o la pérdida de calidad en los contactos con otras personas; es decir, tiene que ver con la manera en que los individuos perciben, experimentan y evalúan la falta de comunicación interpersonal. El aislamiento social concierne a las características objetivas de una situación marcada por la escasez de relaciones sociales (Havens et al 2004;Wenger et al 1996). Una de las consecuencias del aislamiento social puede ser el sentimiento de soledad, aunque teniendo pocos contactos sociales unas personas llegan a sentirse muy solas y, otras, nada en absoluto (Cloutier-Fisher, Kobayashi y Smith 2011), ya que depende de sus deseos y sus expectativas respecto a las relaciones sociales (de Jong Gierveld, van Tilburg y Dykstra 2016).…”