What prevents old people living alone from feeling lonely? Findings from the KORA-Age-study

Zebhauser, A; Baumert, Jens; Emeny, Rebecca T.; Ronel, Joram; Peters, Annette; Ladwig, Karl‐Heinz

doi:10.1080/13607863.2014.977769

Cited by 50 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…A previous study by Victor et al [43] showed that older women living alone were more likely than those with others to experience feeling of social isolation partly because of a lack of social network including emotional support. Improved social relationships were connected with reduced level of loneliness [43] which was associated with depression [44, 45]. Compared to community involvement, individual relationship is more informal and therefore older women living alone can be dependent principally on individual relationship for emotional support.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Types of social participation and psychological distress in Japanese older adults: A five-year cohort study

et al. 2017

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IntroductionThe most effective type of social participation against psychological distress in older adults is not well documented. The aim of this study was to examine whether different types of social participation are associated with changes in psychological distress level in older men and women in Japan.MethodsTwo thousand seven hundred community-dwelling older adults (aged 65–74 years, 50% women) were randomly selected from the resident registry of three cities. Of these, participants who reported social participation and psychological distress level in the baseline survey in 2010 were followed up. Psychological distress was evaluated based on K6 scales at baseline and follow-up (in 2015). Social participation level was examined using question items from the National Health and Nutrition Survey in Japan. Exploratory factor analysis was used to derive the underlying factor structure. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the association between social participation and changes in psychological distress level after adjusting for covariates stratified by both gender and age group or living arrangement.ResultsData from 825 community-dwelling older adults (45.3% women) were analyzed. Social participation was categorized into two types using factor analysis: community involvement (volunteer activities, community events, clubs for the elderly) and individual relationship (friendship, communication with family and friends, hobbies). During the 5-year follow-up, 29.5% of participants reported a deterioration in psychological distress. Higher community involvement was independently associated with lower risk of psychological distress for older women (β = 0.099, p = 0.047), whereas there were no associations with individual relationship for either gender. Furthermore, in older women living with others, higher community involvement was also associated with lower risk of psychological distress (β = 0.110, p = 0.048).ConclusionCommunity involvement provides older women with mental health benefits regardless of individual relationship level. Promoting community involvement may be an effective strategy for healthy mental aging.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Types of social participation and psychological distress in Japanese older adults: A five-year cohort study

et al. 2017

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“…It has been reported that while living alone does not necessarily increase psychological distress in old age (Stone et al 2013), the lack of goals related to activities or relationships could well do so (Lou and Ng 2012). The absence of meaningful social goals might also increase the risk for loneliness among people living alone (Zebhauser et al 2015). Thus, the possibilities for goal setting among older people living alone merit further consideration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life resources and personal goals in old age

et al. 2016

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It has been theorized that life resources influence goal engagement. The aim of the present study was to examine whether personal characteristics, and socio-economic, social and health resources are associated with personal goal content in old age. The participants were 824 community-dwelling people aged 75-90 from the LifeSpace Mobility in Old Age project. Personal goals were elicited using a revised version of the Personal Project Analysis in a structured interview. Cross-sectional bi-and multivariate analyses using logistic regression modelling were conducted. The results showed that the most commonly reported goals were health maintenance related. People with better health resources were more likely to report goals related to leisure-time, social and physical activities and less likely to report goals related to recovery of health. Those with poor social resources were at risk for having no personal goals in their lives. The results are in line with theorizing on the influence of life resources on goal setting in old age. Further longitudinal studies are needed on whether resource loss precedes goal modification, and how goal setting strategies influence both mental and physical well-being in old age.

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“…A previous KORA Age study demonstrated that a stressful life event was not associated with loneliness in older people, yet depression and social network were (Zebhauser et al, 2014). In the current study, the association between high oxytocin, attachment and suffering from an adverse life experience was independent and robust when models were controlled for depression, cognition and social network.…”

Section: Endogenous Oxytocin Is Associated With Reduced Stress Experimentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Participants were classified as physically active if they regularly participated in sports during leisure time ≥1 h/week in either season. Sensitivity analyses on a smaller sample due to missing values additionally considered potential modifying effects of depressed mood using the geriatric depression scale 15 (GDS15 with a cut off ≥5 indicating depressed mood) and the Beckman social network index with scores ranging from 1 to 4 with 3 and 4 combined to represent a high social network) as previously described (Zebhauser et al, 2014). Cognitive status was assessed by the Telephone Interview for Cognition Scale which ranged from18 to 52 after correction for years of education; normal cognition was assigned with scores between 32 and 52 as previously published (Lacruz et al, 2013).…”

Section: Confounding Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxytocin-induced coping with stressful life events in old age depends on attachment: Findings from the cross-sectional KORA Age study

Emeny

Huber

Bidlingmaier

et al. 2015

Psychoneuroendocrinology

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What prevents old people living alone from feeling lonely? Findings from the KORA-Age-study

Cited by 50 publications

References 40 publications

Types of social participation and psychological distress in Japanese older adults: A five-year cohort study

Types of social participation and psychological distress in Japanese older adults: A five-year cohort study

Life resources and personal goals in old age

Oxytocin-induced coping with stressful life events in old age depends on attachment: Findings from the cross-sectional KORA Age study

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