Loneliness among elder people and its correlation with frailty and social support / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand the loneliness of elderly people,and to analyze the correlation between frailty,family social support and loneliness.Methods The elderly people aged 75 and over from 10 community health service centers in Tangshan were selected and evaluated with the CFAI comprehensive e-valuation tool and the loneliness scale.Results The frailty rate was 100% in 3 448 elderly people.The score of the frailty of elderly was(47.27±0.77),and the degree of frailty was increased with the increase of age. The social support level of general and below accounted for 95.92%.The total average score of social support for the elderly was(32.72±6.21);and the medium or above loneliness accounted for 68.94%.The total aver-age score of loneliness in the elderly was(40.24± 10.23).The most needed caregiver was the children and their daughters. Multivariate analysis showed that the degree of education,the degree of frailty,family support (the relationship with children,with the children who do not support the elderly,communicating with chil-dren,taking the views of the elderly,importance of being at home and the visiting frequency of the children), community support(received the services provided by the neighborhood committee,often keep up with rela-tives and friends,the frequency of neighborhood interaction,have received community psychological counse-ling and have received volunteer service)and social support entered the regression equation.The regression coefficient were -0.084,1.167,1.016,1.212,0.914,1.029,1.025,1.264,1.400,0.889,1.053,1.307,1.466, 1.332,-0.405,respectively.Conclusion Frailty,family function and community social support are important factors of loneliness among the elderly.The support system construction should be strengthened to reduce the loneliness of the elderly,and improve the quality of life.