Loneliness and associated factors among older adults during COVID-19 lockdown in Spain.

Considering the health outcomes of loneliness, it is important to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for older adults to facilitate detection and intervention. The aim of this study was to examine loneliness among Spanish older adults during the first wave lockdown and associated factors, in comparison to younger adults. An online survey was completed by 3508 adults (401 aged 60 or above). Older adults felt higher social loneliness than younger adults, but lower emotional loneliness. Living alone, poor mental health, and poor healthy habits were related to higher loneliness for both age groups. The results suggest that loneliness should be an important factor in primary care, and prevention efforts should be taken, e.g., by generating open and safe community spaces and contexts for social interaction and promoting the access and ability to use technologies that maintain social connections.

"Surviving the Violence, Humiliation, and Loneliness Means Getting High": Violence, Loneliness, and Health of Female Sex Workers.

Sex workers are particularly vulnerable to violence, isolation, and stigmatization. This study uses the theory of loneliness to explore the relations among violence, self-esteem, loneliness, health, and drug use. Specifically, this study tested a model in which loneliness mediates the relationship between situational (violence) and characterological (self-esteem) loneliness factors and physical and psychological health and drug abuse. The study sample consisted of 146 sex workers from one region of Spain, recruited through the purposive sampling method. Partial least squares (PLS) path modeling has been employed to test the hypothesis. The findings of this study suggest that two kinds of violence (physical and psychological) have a direct and positive influence on loneliness, so that higher levels of violence increase loneliness, while self-esteem has a protector role on loneliness. Loneliness has a direct and negative impact on psychological and physical health, and determines an increase in drug use, which, in turn, decreases both physical and psychological health. The results support, among other points, that policy makers and sex worker service programs need to be aware of how loneliness plays a role in the health and risk behavior of sex workers. Society has an important role to improve sex workers' health and minimize their risk behavior.

Soledad social y emocional, factores de riesgo asociados en personas que ejercen la prostitución / No disponible

El estigma asociado al ejercicio de la prostitución y las condiciones en las que se realiza favorece la exclusión de este colectivo que puede interferir en la adecuada satisfacción de sus necesidades emocionales y sociales favoreciendo la aparición del sentimiento de soledad. Este estudio relaciona las condiciones en las que se lleva a cabo la prostitución con los sentimientos de soledad. Se ha encontrado que la muestra presenta condiciones de vida que favorecen la aparición de sentimientos de soledad, los cuales son más altos que la población general. Mejorar los vínculos socioemocionales de este colectivo es necesario para mejorar su salud

Stigma associated with prostitution and conditions under which it is performed promotes social isolation of this group which can interfere with the proper satisfaction of their emotional and social needs favoring the emergence of the feeling of loneliness. This study relates the conditions in which prostitution takes place with feelings of loneliness. It has been found that the sample presents living conditions that favor the development of feelings of loneliness, which are higher than the general population. Improve the emotional and social bonds of this collective are important to improve their health