The Influence of Disease Status on Loneliness of the Elderly: Evidence from Rural China

Song, Jiahao; Wu, Haitao; Lan, Hongxing; Xu, Dingde; Wei, Wang

doi:10.3390/ijerph19053023

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Intergenerational emotional support can provide motivation to the elderly to participate in social activities, which in turn relieves their loneliness and enhances their subjective well-being [ 45 , 46 ]. With emotional support from their children, elderly migrants become more confident in communicating with others in new environments [ 47 , 48 ]. Therefore, the children should provide emotional support to the elderly who migrated to new places [ 49 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Intergenerational emotional support can enhance subjective well-being through serially reducing loneliness and increasing self-esteem. Migration can aggravate the loneliness of the elderly, especially when emotional support from their families lacks [ 48 , 54 ]. According to a sociometric theory, people with a feeling of isolation or interpersonal rejection tend to exhibit a lower self-esteem [ 55 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relationship between Intergenerational Emotional Support and Subjective Well-Being among Elderly Migrants in China: The Mediating Role of Loneliness and Self-Esteem

Yang

Wang

Yao

2022

IJERPH

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With the augmentation of family migration, the number and proportion of elderly migrants have increased dramatically in China. The well-being of this group has a profound impact on the whole society. Subjective well-being is a comprehensive reflection of whether a person’s needs are met. In this cross-sectional study, we established a multiple mediation model to evaluate the mediating effects of loneliness and self-esteem on intergenerational emotional support and, consequently, on subjective well-being in elderly migrants. The study population consisted of 728 elderly migrants living in Nanjing (Jiangsu, China), including 219 men (30.1%) and 509 women (69.9%). The participants’ loneliness and self-esteem were measured using the R-UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Philadelphia Senior Center Confidence Scale. Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant correlation between intergenerational emotional support and subjective well-being, and mediation analysis revealed that intergenerational emotional support indirectly influenced subjective well-being through three mediators: loneliness (mediating effect, 0.149), self-esteem (mediating effect, 0.136), and loneliness and self-esteem (mediating effect, 0.041). We conclude that loneliness and self-esteem mediate the relationship between intergenerational emotional support and subjective well-being in elderly migrants and can be regulated to improve elderly migrants’ subjective well-being. Great attention should be paid to the emotional needs of elderly migrants, and communication and exchange with elderly migrants should be emphasized to enhance their subjective sense of well-being.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between Intergenerational Emotional Support and Subjective Well-Being among Elderly Migrants in China: The Mediating Role of Loneliness and Self-Esteem

Yang

Wang

Yao

2022

IJERPH

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“…Loneliness is a prognostic factor for worsened health and cognitive status in the elderly [22], which is already impaired by the sensory deficits common in old age, especially visual impairment [23]. on the other hand, elderly people with poor health status are also more likely to suffer from loneliness, and any episode of severe illness is likely to exacerbate this; chronic diseases do not have such a pronounced effect [24]. The sense of loneliness can also lead to a decrease in the quality of life of elderly people, especially those who live with three or more diseases [25].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loneliness among elderly people as a public health threat

Susło¹,

Mizia²,

Pochybełko³

et al. 2023

fmpcr

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Each day, primary care physicians see many lonely elderly people with multiple complaints, who sometimes can be labelled "over-demanding" or even "abusing health services"; in fact, this phenomenon results from general deficiencies and insufficiency in social support. A literature review has been carried out in order to identify the characteristics of loneliness in people aged sixty years and older, and its health-related consequences. Loneliness causes sensory deprivation and emotional starvation, which translate into a subjective feeling of discomfort and distress, as well as into objective behavioral changes. Loneliness is a prognostic factor for worsened health and cognitive status in the elderly. The limited ability of elderly people to take care of themselves as a result of deterioration in health does not itself lead to loneliness and abandonment if the social support system is not deficient. Paradoxically, policies intended to protect the elderly often result in negative phenomena, such as actual discrimination justified on the basis of paternalistic and generalizing assumptions. Loneliness among elderly people is becoming a serious public health problem in modern atomized, ageing societies. This thus demands urgent action from the Polish state, aimed at providing the elderly with organized social support in order to adequately protect their health and well-being. currently, different levels of the health system, including primary care physicians, are forced to deal with the increasing fallout of loneliness, which presents in the form of physical and mental illnesses, as well as psychosomatic ailments.

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“…In terms of symptoms of end-stage diseases, Song et al [ 19 ]found that hypertension and diabetes did not affect the loneliness of older adults in normal times. However, as these chronic diseases progressed to end-stage symptoms, they elicited stronger loneliness.…”

Section: Loneliness At the End Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Another kind of lonely death: the effects of changes in loneliness on the end-of-life self-care ability of elderly people from the perspective of the distance to death

Li,

Zhu

2024

Preprint

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Objective Lonely death, in the general sense, refers to the phenomenon in which the elderly pass away unattended and not unnoticed for some time thereafter. The objective of this paper is to examine whether a distinct form of lonely death exists, separate from the conventional understanding of lonely death, through an analysis of the impact of trends in loneliness on the end-of-life self-care ability of elderly individuals. Methods This study utilized data from a sample of 1,423 older adults aged 65 and over who participated in three waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey 2008–2014. Loneliness trends were characterised using the group-based growth model. Logistic and linear regressions were used to test the effect of changing loneliness trends on the self-care abilities of older adults nearing the end of life. Finally, path analyses were conducted to explore the specific mechanisms underlying the relationship between loneliness trends and end-of-life self-care. Results Among the older participants, people who were not lonely (61.9%) had greater health gains and, therefore, exhibited lower rates of chronic bedriddenness and higher levels of end-of-life self-care ability. In contrast, increased loneliness (30.8%) is associated with reduced health gains for the elderly population, resulting in a higher likelihood of chronic bedriddenness and decreased self-care abilities in their final days. The remaining older adults (7.3%) report reduced loneliness as a result of the 'attention' they receive as their health deteriorates. Reduced loneliness significantly impaired their end-of-life self-care ability. Conclusion 30.8% of older people experienced increased loneliness during their lifetimes with a significant negative impact on their end-of-life self-care ability, i.e. "a different kind of lonely death". 7.3% of older people did not benefit from reduced loneliness, which was a "death by attention".

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The Influence of Disease Status on Loneliness of the Elderly: Evidence from Rural China

Cited by 11 publications

References 35 publications

Relationship between Intergenerational Emotional Support and Subjective Well-Being among Elderly Migrants in China: The Mediating Role of Loneliness and Self-Esteem

Relationship between Intergenerational Emotional Support and Subjective Well-Being among Elderly Migrants in China: The Mediating Role of Loneliness and Self-Esteem

Loneliness among elderly people as a public health threat

Another kind of lonely death: the effects of changes in loneliness on the end-of-life self-care ability of elderly people from the perspective of the distance to death

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