Effects of psychosocial group rehabilitation on social functioning, loneliness and well-being of lonely, older people: randomized controlled trial.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study to explore the effects of psychosocial group nursing intervention on older people's feelings of loneliness, social activity and psychological well-being. BACKGROUND: Older people's loneliness is associated with low quality of life, and impaired health, increased use of health and social services and increased mortality. Previous intervention studies have achieved quite modest results. METHOD: A randomized controlled trial was conducted between 2003 and 2006 using a group intervention aimed at empowering older people, and promoting peer support and social integration. A total of 235 people (>74 years) suffering from loneliness met 12 times with professional leaders in groups. The UCLA Loneliness Scale and Lubben's Social Network Scale were used at entry, after 3 and 6 months. Psychological well-being was charted using a six-dimensional questionnaire at baseline and 12 months later. FINDINGS: A statistically significantly larger proportion of intervention group participants had found new friends during the follow-up year (45% vs. 32%, P = 0.048), and 40% of intervention group participants continued their group meetings for 1 year. However, no differences were found in loneliness or social networks between the groups. Psychological well-being score improved statistically significantly in the intervention groups [+0.11, 95% confidence interval (CI): +0.04 to +0.13], compared with the controls (+0.01, 95% CI: -0.05 to +0.07, P = 0.045). Feeling needed was statistically significantly more common in the intervention groups (66%) than in controls (49%, P = 0.019). CONCLUSION: New sensitive measurements of loneliness and social isolation are needed to measure fluctuations in feelings of loneliness and in social isolation.

Suffering from loneliness indicates significant mortality risk of older people.

Background. The harmful associates of suffering from loneliness are still in dispute. Objective. To examine the association of feelings of loneliness with all-cause mortality in a general aged population. Methods. A postal questionnaire was sent to randomly selected community-dwelling of elderly people (>74 years) from the Finnish National Population Register. The questionnaire included demographic characteristics, living conditions, functioning, health, and need for help. Suffering from loneliness was assessed with one question and participants were categorized as lonely or not lonely. Total mortality was retrieved from the National Population Information System. Results. Of 3687 respondents, 39% suffered from loneliness. Lonely people were more likely to be deceased during the 57-month follow-up (31%) than subjects not feeling lonely (23%, P < .001). Excess mortality (HR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.21-1.57) of lonely people increased over time. After controlling for age and gender, the mortality risk of the lonely individuals was 1.33 (95% CI = 1.17-1.51) and after further controlling for subjective health 1.17 (CI = 1.02-1.33). The excess mortality was consistent in all major subgroups. Conclusion. Suffering from loneliness is common and indicates significant mortality risk in old age.

Social contacts and their relationship to loneliness among aged people - a population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Emotional loneliness and social isolation are major problems in old age. These concepts are interrelated and often used interchangeably, but few studies have investigated them simultaneously thus trying to clarify their relationship. OBJECTIVES: To describe the prevalence of loneliness among aged Finns and to study the relationship of loneliness with the frequency of social contacts, with older people's expectations and satisfaction of their human relationships. Especially, we wanted to clarify whether emotional loneliness is a separate concept from social isolation. METHODS: The data were collected with a postal questionnaire. Background information, feelings of loneliness, number of friends, frequency of contacts with children, grandchildren and friends, the expectations of frequency of contacts as well as satisfaction of the contacts were inquired. The questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 6,786 aged people (>74 years) in various urban and rural areas in Finland. We report here the results of community-dwelling respondents (n = 4,113). MAIN RESULTS: More than one third of the respondents (39.4%) suffered from loneliness. Feeling of loneliness was not associated with the frequency of contacts with children and friends but rather with expectations and satisfaction of these contacts. The most powerful predictors of loneliness were living alone, depression, experienced poor understanding by the nearest, and unfulfilled expectations of contacts with friends. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the view that emotional loneliness is a separate concept from social isolation. This has implications for practice. Interventions aiming at relieving loneliness should be focused on enabling an individual to reflect her own expectations and inner feelings of loneliness.