Citation

Gao Q, Prina AM, Prince M, Acosta D, Luisa Sosa A, Guerra M, Huang Y, Jimenez-Velazquez IZ, Llibre Rodriguez JJ, Salas A, Williams JD, Liu Z, Acosta Castillo I, Mayston R. Int. J. Public Health 2021; 66: e604449.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.3389/ijph.2021.604449

PMID

34744572

PMCID

PMC8565277

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to explore prevalence and correlates of self-reported loneliness and to investigate whether loneliness predicts mortality among older adults (aged 65 or above) in Latin America, China and India.

METHODS: The study investigated population-based cross-sectional (2003-2007) and longitudinal surveys (follow-up 2007-2010) from the 10/66 Dementia Research Group project. Poisson regression and Cox regression analyses were conducted to analyse correlates of loneliness and its association with mortality.

RESULTS: The standardised prevalence of loneliness varied between 25.3 and 32.4% in Latin America and was 18.3% in India. China showed a low prevalence of loneliness (3.8%). In pooled meta-analyses, there was robust evidence to support an association between loneliness and mortality across Latin American countries (HR = 1.13, 95% CI 1.01-1.26, I(2) = 10.1%) and China (HR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.03-2.41), but there were no associations in India.

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest potential cultural variances may exist in the concept of loneliness in older age. The effect of loneliness upon mortality is consistent across different cultural settings excluding India. Loneliness should therefore be considered as a potential dimension of public health among older populations.

Language: en

Keywords

older adults; mortality; loneliness; low- and middle-income countries; social ageing