The Association between Loneliness and Health Related Quality of Life (HR-QoL) among Community-Dwelling Older Citizens

Siok Swan Tan, Irene N. Fierloos, Xuxi Zhang, Elin Koppelaar, Tamara Alhambra-Borras, Tasos Rentoumis, Greg Williams, Tomislav Rukavina, Rob van Staveren, Jordi Garces-Ferrer, Carmen B. Franse and Hein Raat
Additional contact information
Siok Swan Tan: Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Irene N. Fierloos: Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Xuxi Zhang: Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Elin Koppelaar: Research Centre Innovation in Care, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 25035, 3001 HA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Tamara Alhambra-Borras: Polibienestar Research Institute, University of Valencia, Carrer del Serpis, 29, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Tasos Rentoumis: Alliance for Integrated Care, Amfitritis 14, Palaio Faliro, 175 61 Athens, Greece
Greg Williams: Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK
Tomislav Rukavina: Department of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Trg braće Mažuranića 10, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Rob van Staveren: Zorg Op Noord, Cypresbaan 7, 2908 LT Capelle aan den IJssel, The Netherlands
Jordi Garces-Ferrer: Polibienestar Research Institute, University of Valencia, Carrer del Serpis, 29, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Carmen B. Franse: Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Hein Raat: Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: Background : This study aimed to assess the association between loneliness and Health-Related Quality of Life (HR-QoL) among community-dwelling older citizens in five European countries. We characterize loneliness broadly from an emotional and social perspective. Methods : This cross-sectional study measured loneliness with the 6-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale and HR-QoL with the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey. The association between loneliness and HR-QoL was examined using multivariable linear regression models. Results : Data of 2169 citizens of at least 70 years of age and living independently (mean age = 79.6 ± 5.6; 61% females) were analyzed. Among the participants, 1007 (46%) were lonely; 627 (29%) were emotionally and 575 (27%) socially lonely. Participants who were lonely experienced a lower HR-QoL than participants who were not lonely ( p ≤ 0.001). Emotional loneliness [std-β: −1.39; 95%-CI: −1.88 to −0.91] and social loneliness [−0.95; −1.44 to −0.45] were both associated with a lower physical HR-QoL. Emotional loneliness [−3.73; −4.16 to −3.31] and social loneliness [−1.84; −2.27 to −1.41] were also both associated with a lower mental HR-QoL. Conclusions : We found a negative association between loneliness and HR-QoL, especially between emotional loneliness and mental HR-QoL. This finding indicates that older citizens who miss an intimate or intense emotional relationship and interventions targeting mental HR-QoL deserve more attention in policy and practice than in the past.

Keywords: community-dwelling older citizens; emotional loneliness; health related quality of life; loneliness; social loneliness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/600/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/600/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:2:p:600-:d:309835

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().