Hanyuying Wang
Is loneliness associated with increased health and social care utilisation in the oldest old? Findings from a population-based longitudinal study
Wang, Hanyuying; Zhao, Emily; Fleming, Jane; Dening, Tom; Khaw, Kay-Tee; Brayne, Carol
Authors
Emily Zhao
Jane Fleming
TOM DENING TOM.DENING@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Clinical Professor in Dementia Research
Kay-Tee Khaw
Carol Brayne
Abstract
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Objectives The present study aimed to examine the impact of loneliness on health and social care service use in the oldest old over a 7-year follow-up. Design Prospective study. Setting UK population-based cohort. Participants 713 people aged 80 years or older were interviewed at wave 3 of the Cambridge City over-75s Cohort Study. Of these, 665 provided data on loneliness. During 7 years' follow-up, 480 participants left the study, of which 389 due to death. 162 still in the study answered the loneliness question. Main outcome measure Use of health and social care services, assessed at each wave from wave 3 to wave 5. Results At wave 3, of 665 participants who had data on loneliness, about 60% did not feel lonely, 16% felt slightly lonely and 25% felt lonely. Being slightly lonely at wave 3 was associated with a shorter time since last seeing a general practitioner (β=-0.5, 95% CI: -0.8 to -0.2); when examining the association between time-varying loneliness and health and social care usage, being lonely was associated with three times greater likelihood of having contact with community nurses and using meals on wheels services (community nurse contact: incidence rate ratio (IRR)=3.4, 95% CI: 1.4 to 8.7; meals on wheels service use: IRR=2.5, 95% CI: 1.1 to 5.6). No associations between loneliness and other health and social care services use were found. Conclusion Loneliness was a significant risk factor for certain types of health and social care utilisations, independently of participants' health conditions, in the oldest old. Study findings have several implications, including the need for awareness-raising and prevention of loneliness to be priorities for public health policy and practice.
Citation
Wang, H., Zhao, E., Fleming, J., Dening, T., Khaw, K., & Brayne, C. (2019). Is loneliness associated with increased health and social care utilisation in the oldest old? Findings from a population-based longitudinal study. BMJ Open, 9(5), Article e024645. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024645
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Apr 5, 2019 |
Online Publication Date | Jun 1, 2019 |
Publication Date | 2019-05 |
Deposit Date | Jul 10, 2019 |
Publicly Available Date | Jul 10, 2019 |
Journal | BMJ Open |
Electronic ISSN | 2044-6055 |
Publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 9 |
Issue | 5 |
Article Number | e024645 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024645 |
Keywords | General Medicine |
Public URL | https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2294001 |
Publisher URL | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/5/e024645 |
Contract Date | Jul 10, 2019 |
Files
Wang et al Loneliness BMJ Open 2019
(446 Kb)
PDF
Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
You might also like
Effective health care for older people living and dying in care homes: a realist review
(2016)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Repository@Nottingham
Administrator e-mail: discovery-access-systems@nottingham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search