Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Professor Matthew Prina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Copyright © 2021 Gao, Prina, Prince, Acosta, Luisa Sosa, Guerra, Huang, Jimenez-Velazquez, Llibre Rodriguez, Salas, Williams, Liu, Acosta Castillo and Mayston. Objectives: This study was designed to explore prevalence and correlates of self-reported loneliness and to investigate whether loneliness predicts mortality among older adults (aged 65 or above) in Latin America, China and India. Methods: The study investigated population-based cross-sectional (2003-2007) and longitudinal surveys (follow-up 2007-2010) from the 10/66 Dementia Research Group project. Poisson regression and Cox regression analyses were conducted to analyse correlates of loneliness and its association with mortality. Results: The standardised prevalence of loneliness varied between 25.3 and 32.4% in Latin America and was 18.3% in India. China showed a low prevalence of loneliness (3.8%). In pooled meta-analyses, there was robust evidence to support an association between loneliness and mortality across Latin American countries (HR = 1.13, 95% CI 1.01-1.26, I2 = 10.1%) and China (HR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.03-2.41), but there were no associations in India. Conclusion: Our findings suggest potential cultural variances may exist in the concept of loneliness in older age. The effect of loneliness upon mortality is consistent across different cultural settings excluding India. Loneliness should therefore be considered as a potential dimension of public health among older populations.
Author(s): Gao Q, Prina AM, Prince M, Acosta D, Luisa Sosa A, Guerra M, Huang Y, Jimenez-Velazquez IZ, Llibre Rodriguez JJ, Salas A, Williams JD, Liu Z, Acosta Castillo I, Mayston R
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: International Journal of Public Health
Year: 2021
Volume: 66
Online publication date: 31/03/2021
Acceptance date: 02/02/2021
Date deposited: 16/03/2023
ISSN (print): 1661-8556
ISSN (electronic): 1661-8564
Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
URL: https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2021.604449
DOI: 10.3389/ijph.2021.604449
PubMed id: 34744572
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
