Relationships of self-management abilities to loneliness among older people: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: We investigated relationships of broader self-management abilities (self-efficacy, positive frame of mind, investment behavior, taking initiatives, multifunctionality of resources, variety of resources) to social and emotional loneliness among community-dwelling older people while controlling for background characteristics. Methods: This cross-sectional study employed a representative sample of 41,327 community-dwelling people aged ≥55 years in Limburg, the Netherlands, identified using the population register (weighted per district, complex sampling design). In total, 20,327 (50%) people responded to the questionnaire. Results: All self-management abilities were associated negatively with emotional loneliness. Taking initiatives, multifunctionality, self-efficacy, and a positive frame of mind were associated negatively with social loneliness. Selfefficacy had the strongest relationships with social and emotional loneliness. Conclusions: In combatting loneliness among older people, investment in their ability to self-manage their social lives and activities, such as increasing opportunities for positive social interaction and social support and reducing maladaptive cognition, seems to be crucial.

The Interplay Between Quality of Life and Resilience Factors in Later Life: A Network Analysis

“…Our main finding that SMA is strongly associated with (multiple facets of) QoL (especially SOP) extends earlier demonstrations of positive associations between SMA and well-being and other health indicators (e.g., frailty, loneliness) at old age (Schuurmans et al, 2005;Cramm et al, 2012aCramm et al, ,b, 2014Nieboer et al, 2020). Moreover, our finding is in line with Cramm and Nieboer (2017) that successfully increased QoL by boosting SMA.…”

Self-management of social well-being in a cross-sectional study among community-dwelling older adults: The added value of digital participation

“…In contrast, older adults score the lowest for the ability of having a variety in resources, with a mean score of 3.3. This finding is also consistent with data obtained in other research in this field (mean score 3.6) [22]. Lower scores for variety of resources may be explained in view of the fact that older adults have smaller social networks than younger adults in general [23].…”

“…Among the abilities for self-management, the highest scores were found for the abilities investment behaviour (mean score 4.4) and self-efficacy (mean score 4.2). These results reflect those of Nieboer et al [22] in a sample of community-dwelling people aged 55 years and older (respectively 4.6 and 4.3). In contrast, older adults score the lowest for the ability of having a variety in resources, with a mean score of 3.3.…”

The Interplay between Quality of Life and Resilience Factors in Later Life: A Network Analysis

“…Our main finding that self-management ability (SMA) is strongly associated with (multiple facets of) quality of life (QoL; especially social participation), extends earlier demonstrations of positive associations between SMA and well-being and other health indicators (e.g., frailty, loneliness) at old age (Cramm et al, 2014;Cramm, Hartgerink, et al, 2012;Cramm, Strating, et al, 2012;Nieboer et al, 2020;Schuurmans et al, 2005). Moreover, our finding is in line with Cramm & Nieboer (2017), that successfully increased QoL by boosting SMA.…”