Correlates of social and emotional loneliness in older people: evidence from an English community study

Figures & data

Table 1. Participants’ demographic characteristics.

Characteristic	(n), M (SD), range
Age	(1250), 75.7 (7.29), 65–101
Years at current address	(1251) 25.1 (17.2) 0–80
Place of residence	n (%)
Rural	628 (50.0)
Urban	627 (50.0)
Gender
Women	776 (61.8)
Men	479 (38.2)
Marital status
Married or cohabiting	557 (44.6)
Divorced or separated, never married	148 (11.8)
Widowed	545 (43.6)
Education level
Low	931 (74.2)
Medium to high	324 (25.8)

Table 2. Participants’ scores on psychological, health, and social variables.

Characteristic
Psychological and health variables	(n), M (SD), range
WHO-5	(1243), 14.33 (6.41), 0–25
Self-esteem	(1250), 3.81 (1.05), 1–5
Self-rated (poor) health	(1237), 3.14 (0.91), 1–5
GARS	(1186), 25.47 (10.12), 18–72
Social variables	(n), M (SD), range
Income discomfort	(1241), 2.61 (0.84), 1–5
Family categories met weekly	(1214), 1.73 (1.16), 0–5
Non-family categories met twice weekly	(1247), 0.98 (0.78), 0–2
Activity	(1172), 22.42 (13.04), 0–71
Perceived community trust	(1240), 11.40 (1.89), 3–15
Perceived community integration	(1242), 15.62 (2.39), 4–20
Emotional loneliness	(1230), 1.62 (1.90), 0–6
Social loneliness	(1240), 1.47 (1.61), 0–5
	n (%)
Informal caregiving
Yes	153 (12.3)
No	1095 (87.7)
Informal care receipt
Yes	269 (21.5)
No	980 (78.5)
Receipt of medical care
Yes	768 (61.3)
No	485 (38.7)
Receipt of community care
Yes	176 (14.1)
No	1073 (85.9)

Note: WHO-5, World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index; GARS, Groningen Activity Restriction Scale.

Table 3. Associations between demographic, psychological, health and social variables and loneliness.

	Social loneliness		Emotional loneliness
Variable	r	p	r	p
Age	0.06	0.051	0.13	0.000
Length of residence at current address	−0.02	0.453	−0.06	0.041
(Urban) area of residence	0.00	0.929	0.08	0.006
(Female) gender	−0.05	0.055	0.06	0.033
Widowed	0.09	0.022	0.26	0.000
(Medium to high) education	−0.02	0.583	−0.10	0.000
WHO-5	−0.27	0.000	−0.42	0.000
Self-esteem	−0.23	0.000	−0.32	0.000
Self-rated (poor health)	0.18	0.000	0.28	0.000
GARS	0.20	0.000	0.31	0.000
Income discomfort	0.17	0.000	0.21	0.000
Family categories met weekly	−0.23	0.000	−0.08	0.005
Non-family categories met twice weekly	−0.20	0.000	−0.15	0.000
Activity	−0.23	0.000	−0.31	0.000
Perceived community trust	−0.23	0.000	−0.16	0.000
Perceived community integration	−0.33	0.000	−0.22	0.000
Informal caregiver	0.01	0.616	−0.02	0.494
Informal care receiver	0.07	0.010	0.09	0.001
Receipt of medical care	0.01	0.664	0.04	0.157
Receipt of community care	0.08	0.004	0.11	0.000

Note: WHO-5, World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index; GARS, Groningen Activity Restriction Scale.

Table 4. Sequential multiple regression of social loneliness: final model statistics (n = 998).

Variable	B	SE B	β
Age	−0.00	0.008	−0.02
Length of residence at current address	0.00	0.003	0.01
(Urban) area of residence	−0.09	0.098	−0.03
(Female) gender	−0.37	0.094	−0.12*
Widowed	0.23	0.102	0.07*
(Medium to high) education	0.12	0.115	0.03
WHO-5	−0.04	0.010	−0.17*
Self-esteem	−0.11	0.051	−0.07*
Self-rated (poor health)	−0.04	0.066	−0.02
GARS	0.00	0.007	0.00
Income discomfort	0.17	0.058	0.09*
Family categories met weekly	−0.24	0.39	−0.18*
Non-family categories met twice weekly	−0.20	0.059	−0.10*
Activity	−0.011	0.005	−0.09*
Perceived community trust	−0.05	0.030	−0.06
Perceived community integration	−0.14	0.024	−0.19*
Informal care receiver	0.03	0.13	0.01
Receipt of community care	0.27	0.138	0.06*

Note: WHO-5, World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index; GARS, Groningen Activity Restriction Scale.

R² = 0.019 for Step 1; ΔR² = 0.100 for Step 2; ΔR² = 0.131 for Step 3. *p < 0.05.

Table 5. Sequential multiple regression of emotional loneliness: final model statistics (n = 992).

Variable	B	SE B	β
Age	−0.00	0.009	−0.01
Length of residence at current address	−0.00	0.003	−0.03
(Urban) area of residence	0.06	0.114	0.02
(Female) gender	−0.22	0.110	−0.06
Widowed	0.79	0.118	0.21*
(Medium to high) education	0.05	0.134	0.01
WHO-5 well-being	−0.08	0.011	−0.28*
Self-esteem	−0.21	0.059	−0.11*
Self-rated (poor health)	−0.01	0.076	−0.01
GARS	0.02	0.008	0.11*
Income discomfort	0.17	0.067	0.07*
Family categories met weekly	−0.09	0.046	−0.06
Non-family categories met twice weekly	−0.11	0.069	−0.05
Activity	−0.01	0.006	−0.06
Perceived community trust	−0.07	0.035	−0.07
Perceived community integration	−0.04	0.027	−0.04
Informal care receiver	−0.33	0.152	−0.07*
Receipt of community care	0.27	0.161	0.05

Note: WHO-5, World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index; GARS, Groningen Activity Restriction Scale.

R² = 0.067 for Step 1; ΔR² = 0.202 for Step 2; ΔR² = 0.030 for Step 3. *p < 0.05.