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Living alone, social support, and feeling lonely among the elderly

Yeh, Shu-Chuan Jennifer and Lo, Sing Kai 2004, Living alone, social support, and feeling lonely among the elderly, Social behaviour and personality, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 129-138.

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Title Living alone, social support, and feeling lonely among the elderly
Author(s) Yeh, Shu-Chuan Jennifer
Lo, Sing Kai
Journal name Social behaviour and personality
Volume number 32
Issue number 2
Start page 129
End page 138
Publisher Society for Personality Research
Place of publication Palmerston North, NZ
Publication date 2004
ISSN 0301-2212
Summary This study aimed to describe the characteristics of the elderly population living alone, and to examine how living alone relates to feeling lonely. Interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of 4,859 elderly individuals living in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Variables collected included demographic information, living alone or not, activities of daily living
(ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ), chronic conditions, perceived social support, and a subjective measure of feeling lonely. Using logistic regression, it was found that factors associated with living alone included gender, marital status, occupation, source of income, religion, and IADL. Living alone was, in tum, related to decreased levels of both perceived social support
and feeling lonely after adjustment for potential confounders. Managing retired life is important for adult elders, particularly for men. Lack ofsocial support is common among the elderly community who live alone, which could wel1 be a main reason for this group to feel lonely. As loneliness is linked to physical and mental health problems, increasing social support and facilitating friendship should be factored into life-style management for
communities of elderly.
Notes Reproduced with the specific permission of the copyright owner.
Language eng
Field of Research 111714 Mental Health
HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal
Copyright notice ©2004 Society for Personiality Research
Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30006590

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