Family support and loneliness among older persons in multiethnic Malaysia.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Teh JK
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4214036 | biostudies-other | 2014
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:The aim of this study was to evaluate the 1-year effect of the health-promoting intervention "senior meetings" for older community-dwelling persons regarding loneliness, social network, and social support.Secondary analysis of data was carried out from two randomized controlled studies: Elderly Persons in the Risk Zone and Promoting Aging Migrants' Capabilities. Data from 416 participants who attended the senior meetings and the control group at baseline and the 1-year follow-up in the respective studies were included. Data were aggregated and analyzed with chi-square test and odds ratio (OR) to determine the intervention effect.The senior meetings had a positive effect on social support regarding someone to turn to when in need of advice and backing (OR 1.72, p=0.01). No positive intervention effect could be identified for loneliness, social network, or other aspects of social support.Health-promoting senior meetings for older community-dwelling persons have a minor positive effect on social support. The senior meetings might benefit from a revision to reinforce content focused on loneliness, social network, and social support. However, the modest effect could also depend on the lack of accessible social resources to meet participants' identified needs, a possible hindrance for a person's capability. This makes it necessary to conduct further research to evaluate the effect of the senior meetings and other health-promoting initiatives on social aspects of older community-dwelling people's lives, since these aspects are of high importance for life satisfaction and well-being in old age.
| S-EPMC5683788 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In order to better understand people in demanding medical situations, an awareness of existential concerns is important. Studies performed over the last twenty years conclude that when dying and death come closer, as in the case with older people who are stricken by infirmity and diseases, existential concerns will come to the fore. However, studies concerning experiences of existential loneliness (EL) are sparse and, in addition, there is no clear definition of EL. EL is described as a complex phenomenon and referred to as a condition of life, an experience, and a process of inner growth. Listening to someone who knows the older person well, as significant others often do, may be one way of learning more about EL.This study is part of a larger research project on EL, the LONE study, where EL is explored through interviews with frail older people, their significant others and health care professionals. The aim of this study was to explore frail older (>75) persons' EL, as interpreted by their significant others. The study is qualitative and based on eighteen narrative interviews with nineteen significant others of older persons. The data was analysed using Hsieh and Shannon's conventional content analysis.According to the interpretation of significant others, the older persons experience EL (1) when they are increasingly limited in body and space, (2) when they are in a process of disconnecting, and (3) when they are disconnected from the outside world.The result can be understood as if the frail older person is in a process of letting go of life. This process involves the body, in that the older person is increasingly limited in his/her physical abilities. The older person's long-term relationships are gradually lost, and finally the process entails the older person's increasingly withdrawing into him- or herself and turning off the outside world. The result of this study is consistent with previous research that has shown that EL is a complex phenomenon, but the implications of this research include a deepened understanding of EL. In addition, the study highlights the interpretations of significant others.
| S-EPMC5502486 | biostudies-other
Project description:ObjectivesA growing body of research has identified factors related to loneliness among older adults. Fewer have investigated predictors of loneliness within married couples. This analysis investigates how spousal support and strain relate with loneliness within older couples (age 50+), and whether these associations are modified by functional limitation. The study focuses on Mexico, a country experiencing rapid aging occurring alongside historically limited institutional support for older adults, and where traditional gender roles extend to marriage.MethodsThe analytic sample consisted of 3,584 husband-wife dyads from the 2012 and 2015 Mexican Health and Aging Study. Loneliness was measured using the Three-Item Loneliness Scale. Associations between spousal support, strain, and loneliness were estimated within husband-wife dyads using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model.ResultsExperiencing more spousal support was associated with less loneliness, whereas experiencing spousal strain was associated with more loneliness 3 years later among married adults. The associations between spousal support/strain and loneliness were stronger among husbands with limitations in activities of daily living (ADL) when compared to their counterparts without ADL limitations.DiscussionAmong married adults, spousal support and strain may be important factors to understand loneliness within marriage. Effects should be interpreted within the context of functional limitation.
| S-EPMC8253057 | biostudies-literature
Project description:More than two decades of research has consistently indicated that feelings of loneliness among older people are more common in southern Europe than in its northern parts, with the lowest rates in Denmark and Sweden. Our analyses based on analysis of 2004-2006 data from 8,787 individuals aged 65 years or older in the SHARE project replicate, update, and extend these findings. We found, similar to previous studies, that the prevalence of feelings of loneliness was more common in the Mediterranean countries than in Northern Europe. Living together with a spouse/partner was consistently associated with the lower prevalence of loneliness across countries. The combination of living alone and having bad health was associated with 10 times higher odds of feeling lonely as compared with living together with someone and having good health. With regard to gender and health, we found signs of differences between countries in how these factors were related to loneliness. Our results indicate the importance of both contextual features and cultural expectations in interpreting reported loneliness, that is, loneliness across Europe has both nomothetic and idiographic features.
| S-EPMC5547349 | biostudies-other
Project description:The focus in this paper is on the social domain of quality of life, and more particularly loneliness. The empirical literature on older adult loneliness is reviewed, thereby challenging three often-held assumptions that figure prominently in public debates on loneliness. The first assumption that loneliness is a problem specifically for older people finds only partial support. Loneliness is common only among the very old. The second assumption is that people in individualistic societies are most lonely. Contrary to this belief, findings show that older adults in northern European countries tend to be less lonely than those in the more familialistic southern European countries. The scarce data on Central and Eastern Europe suggest a high prevalence of older adult loneliness in those countries. The third assumption that loneliness has increased over the past decades finds no support. Loneliness levels have decreased, albeit slightly. The review notes the persistence of ageist attitudes, and underscores the importance of considering people's frame of reference and normative orientation in analyses of loneliness.
| S-EPMC2693783 | biostudies-other
Project description:IntroductionAs relatively little is known about self-efficacy and social support in individuals aged 65 years and older and whether they are facing a decline in life due to multimorbidity and previous COVID-19 infection, this study investigated hypotheses based on Social Cognitive Theory.MethodsIt was tested whether depressive symptoms in multimorbid patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19 infection, and recover post infection during their hospital stay, do not differ from those of multimorbid patients hospitalized for other conditions. Furthermore, we tested whether depressive symptoms are associated with increased loneliness scores, low self-efficacy beliefs, and poorly perceived social support. Additionally, it was investigated whether self-efficacy is a mediator variable, and social support is a moderator variable between loneliness and depression. N = 135 patients with or without previous COVID-19 infection (mean age 64.76) were recruited. Paper questionnaires were collected at the time of inpatient hospital admission in the year 2021 and in a cross-sectional study design. The study compared n = 45 multimorbid patients who survived COVID-19 infection with those n = 90 who were not infected before.ResultsNo significant difference in depressive symptomology between these two groups revealed [t(133) = 130, p = 0.90, d = 0.024); F(3, 122) = 0.255, p = 0.86]. The study found a positive correlation between loneliness and anxiety and depression in both groups (rdepression = 0.419 and ranxiety = 0.496). Self-efficacy mediated the relation between loneliness and depression. The completely standardized indirect effect was β = 0.111, percentile Bootstrap 95% CI 0.027-0.201.DiscussionThe research findings suggest the importance of self-efficacy, and loneliness in the development of depressive symptoms, and have several practical implications for improving the mental health of multimorbid patients: Prospectively, treatment should not only focus on physical and cognitive health, but also on promoting self-efficacy and perceived social support, as well as address loneliness with psychoeducational interventions. Replication of the findings and conducting interventional research also employing lifestyle components should follow up, as this study tested associations but no causal relationships.
| S-EPMC10642299 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Genome wide DNA methylation assays was conducted using the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadArray technology (Methyl850K chip) that allows genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of 866,836 CpG sites. We included baseline and 2-year follow-up samples from 25 persons with mild cognitive impairment (cases) and 20 persons with cognitively normal (controls). Sample was balanced by age and sex.
2021-12-10 | GSE190540 | GEO
Project description:ObjectivesThe topic of older adult loneliness commands increasing media and policy attention around the world. Are surveys of aging equipped to measure it? We assess the measurement of loneliness in large-scale aging studies in 31 countries by describing the available measures, testing correlations between them, and documenting their construct validity.MethodsWe use data from several "sister studies" of aging adults around the world. In each country, we document available loneliness measures, test for measurement reliability by examining correlations between different measures of loneliness, and assess how these correlations differ by gender and age group. We then evaluate construct validity by estimating correlations between loneliness measures and theoretically hypothesized constructs related to loneliness: living alone and not having a spouse.ResultsThere is substantial heterogeneity in available measures of loneliness across countries. Within countries with multiple measures, the correlations between measures are high (range 0.384-0.777, median 0.636). Although we find several statistically significant differences in these correlations by gender and age, the differences are small (gender: range -0.098 to 0.081, median -0.026; age group: range -0.194 to 0.092, median -0.003). Correlations between loneliness measures and living alone and being without a spouse are all positive, almost universally statistically significant, and similar in magnitude across countries, supporting construct validity.DiscussionThis article establishes that even single-item measures of loneliness contribute meaningful information in diverse settings. Similar to the measurement of self-rated health, there are nuances to the measurement of older adult loneliness in different contexts, but it has reliable and consistent measurement properties within many countries.
| S-EPMC8363044 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Gerotranscendence defines a shift in meta-perspective from earlier materialistic and pragmatic concerns, toward more cosmic and transcendent ones in later life. Population-based studies that have empirically examined this concept using Tornstam's gerotranscendence scale, highlight cosmic transcendence as a core component, which includes a sense of belongingness with past and future generations. Such generative concerns may increase expectations regarding the quality of the bond with one's children in later life. This study examined whether the association between emotional support exchanged with children and feelings of loneliness later in life varied by the degree of cosmic transcendence of the older parent. Data from 1,845 older parents participating in a population-based study living in The Netherlands were analyzed from the 1995/1996 cycle of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Interviews included self-report measures of cosmic transcendence, loneliness, emotional support exchanged with children, health indicators, and marital status. Results indicated that a negative association between loneliness and level of emotional support exchanged with children was more pronounced among older parents with higher cosmic transcendence scores, in particular among the married. It is argued that cosmic transcendence reflects a sense of generativity and an increased emotional dependency on children in later life. Under favorable social conditions (supportive relationships with children and being married) cosmic transcendent views had a positive impact on social well-being in later life. When children no longer met emotional needs of older parents, cosmic transcendence increased feelings of loneliness.
| S-EPMC5546339 | biostudies-other
Project description:In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in technology use in dementia caregiving, particularly the use of mobile applications (apps) which are highly accessible, cost-effective and intuitive. Yet, little is known about the experiences of family caregivers of persons living with dementia who use apps to support caregiving activities. This is of particular concern given that limited understandings of the user experience in designing technology have often led to end-users experiencing barriers in technology adoption and use. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of family caregivers of persons living with dementia on using apps in their caregiving roles. A purposive sample of five family caregivers in Ontario, Canada participated in two interviews each, with the second interview informed by photo-elicitation methods. Thematic analysis of the collected data revealed a central overarching theme, Connecting to support through apps in my, your and our lives, which explicated how apps played an important role in the lives of the caregiver, the care recipient and both together as a dyad. Three core themes also emerged: Adapting apps to meet individual needs of the dyad, Minimising the impact of the condition on the person and the family and Determining the effectiveness of apps. The findings highlighted that the value of apps extends beyond their mere functionality and their ability to help with care provision as they are also able to promote richer interpersonal connections, enhance personhood and sustain family routines. This research advances our understanding of the impact of app use in caregiving and provides direction for future research, policy, education, practice and app development.
| S-EPMC9237854 | biostudies-literature