Study of loneliness and wisdom in 482 middle-aged and oldest-old adults: a comparison between people in Cilento, Italy and San Diego, USA

Abstract

Objectives

There has been growing research interest in loneliness and wisdom in recent decades, but no cross-cultural comparisons of these constructs using standardized rating measures in older adults, especially the oldest-old. This was a cross-sectional study of loneliness and wisdom comparing middle-aged and oldest-old adults in Cilento, Italy and San Diego, United States.

Method

We examined loneliness and wisdom, using the UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 (UCLA-3) and San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE), respectively, in four subject groups: adults aged 50-65 and those ≥90 years from Cilento, Italy (N = 212 and 47, respectively) and San Diego, California, USA (N = 138 and 85, respectively).

Results

After controlling for education, there were no significant group differences in levels of loneliness, while on SD-WISE the Cilento ≥90 group had lower scores compared to the other three groups. There was a strong inverse correlation between loneliness and wisdom in each of the four subject groups. Loneliness was negatively associated while wisdom was positively associated with general health, sleep quality, and happiness in most groups, with varying levels of significance.

Conclusion

These results largely support cross-cultural validity of the constructs of loneliness and wisdom, and extend previous findings of strong inverse correlations between these two entities. Loneliness has become a growing public health problem, and the results of our study suggest that wisdom could be a protective factor against loneliness, although alternative explanations are also possible. Research on interventions to reduce loneliness by enhancing wisdom in older adults is needed.

Keywords:

• longevity
• health
• happiness
• social isolation
• compassion

Acknowledgements

This work was supported, in part, by a grant from the Center for Healthy Aging and the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California San Diego. We also want to thank other investigators from the UC San Diego team who are involved in this ongoing comprehensive study: Drs. Lori Daniels, Carol Franz, Mohit Jain, Anthony Molina, Tatiana Kisseleva, Rob Knight, William Kremen, and Robert Rissman. We also appreciate help for this study from several UC San Diego Stein Institute staff members, especially Paula Smith.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this report.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Description of authors’ roles

• Dilip Jeste designed the study, provided research supervision and support, and prepared the manuscript.

• Salvatore Di Somma designed the CIAO study, provided research supervision and support, and edited the paper.

• Ellen Lee conducted literature review, helped with data analysis, and edited the paper.

• Tanya Nguyen conducted literature review, helped with data analysis, and helped prepare the manuscript.

• Mara Scalcione translated the loneliness and wisdom scales into Italian and supervised their administration in Cilento.

• Alice Biaggi translated the loneliness and wisdom scales into Italian and supervised their administration in Cilento.

• Rebecca Daly managed the data and helped with analyses.

• Jinyuan Liu conducted statistical analyses.

• Xin Tu designed, supervised, and interpreted the statistical analyses.

• Douglas Ziedonis edited the paper.

• Danielle Glorioso helped conduct the SAGE study.

• Paola Antonini helped design the CIAO study, provided support, and edited the paper.

• David Brenner helped design the overall study, provided research support, and edited the paper.