Long-Term Conditions in Older People are Linked with Loneliness, but a Sense of Coherence Buffers the Adverse Effects on Quality of Life: A Cross-Sectional Study

Figures & data

Figure 1 Flowchart of participants.

Table 1 Descriptive Statistics of Participants’ Physical, Environmental, and Psychological Characteristics

Physical	%
Age groups
60–69	29.7
70–79	47.3
80+	23.0
Male	48.4
Long-term condition or disability	61.4
Environmental
Rurality
Other urban areas	21.5
Small towns, accessible rural, and remote rural	42.4
Very remote rural	36.0
Living alone	30.1
Unpaid care for others 20+ hrs per week	6.6
Psychological
Sense of coherence
Weak	20.5
Intermediate	46.8
Strong	32.7
High levels of loneliness (1 SD or more above the mean)
Overall	21.8
Emotional	17.2
Social	20.9
Quality of life; Mean [SD]	3.97 [0.77]

Table 2 Bivariate Associations of Physical, Environmental, and Psychological Variables with Quality of Life

Characteristics	Quality of Life		Anova
	Mean	SD	F	p
Age group
60–69	4.12	0.72	22.67	<0.001
70–79	3.98	0.74
80+	3.75	0.83
Gender
Female	3.90	0.77	8.58	<0.001
Male	4.05	0.75
Long-term condition/disability
No	4.26	0.74	143.35	<0.001
Yes	3.79	0.70
Rurality
Other urban areas	3.98	0.79	0.44	0.668
Small towns, accessible rural, and remote rural	3.98	0.76
Very remote rural	3.95	0.76
Living alone
Yes	3.78	0.77	37.56	<0.001
No	4.05	0.78
Unpaid care for others per week
0–<20 hrs	3.99	0.76	16.79	<0.001
20 hrs+	3.66	0.77
Sense of coherence
Weak	3.31	0.79	246.41	<0.001
Intermediate	3.96	0.65
Strong	4.40	0.59
Overall loneliness
Low	4.08	0.75	175.11	<0.001
High (1 SD or more above the mean)	3.48	0.74
Emotional loneliness
Low	4.09	0.75	212.97	<0.001
High (1 SD or more above the mean)	3.36	0.73
Social loneliness
Low	4.10	0.76	195.60	<0.001
High (1 SD or more above the mean)	3.46	0.74

Table 3 Correlation Matrix of Physical, Environmental, and Psychological Exposure Variables (P<0.05 in Blue and P<0.01 in Red)

	Age	Male Gender	Long-Term Condition/Disability	Rurality	Not Living Alone	Unpaid Care for Others 20+ hrs per Week	Overall Loneliness	Emotional Loneliness	Social Loneliness	Sense of Coherence
Age	1.00
Male gender	−0.04	1.00
Long-term condition/disability	0.16	0.06	1.00
Rurality	−0.01	−0.02	−0.02	1.00
Not living alone	−0.16	0.21	−0.08	0.10	1.00
Unpaid care for others 20+ hrs per week	−0.01	−0.04	−0.01	0.02	0.14	1.00
Overall loneliness	0.04	−0.10	0.12	−0.01	−0.17	0.06	1.00
Emotional loneliness	0.07	−0.12	0.13	−0.03	−0.21	0.02	0.67	1.00
Social loneliness	−0.01	0.00	0.08	0.01	−0.12	0.09	0.48	0.24	1.00
Sense of coherence	−0.11	0.09	−0.15	−0.01	0.12	−0.07	−0.25	−0.34	−0.28	1.00

Table 4 Generalized Linear Model on Quality of Life Testing the Main Effects of Physical, Environmental, and Psychological Variables, and Their Interaction with Sense of Coherence

	B	SE	Lower	Upper	p
Main effects
Age	−0.08	0.05	−0.17	0.01	0.075
Male gender (a)	0.14	0.06	0.01	0.27	0.030
Long-term condition/disability (b)	−0.44	0.07	−0.57	−0.31	<0.001
Rurality	0.02	0.04	−0.07	0.10	0.705
Not living alone	0.01	0.07	−0.13	0.14	0.890
Unpaid care for others 20+ hrs per week	−0.14	0.11	−0.36	0.08	0.218
Emotional loneliness (b)	−0.30	0.08	−0.45	−0.14	<0.001
Social loneliness (b)	−0.39	0.07	−0.52	−0.25	<0.001
Sense of coherence	0.40	0.27	−0.12	0.92	0.134
Interaction with sense of coherence
Age	−0.01	0.03	−0.08	0.06	0.775
Male gender	−0.05	0.05	−0.15	0.04	0.279
Long-term condition/disability (a)	0.10	0.05	0.01	0.20	0.037
Rurality	−0.04	0.03	−0.11	0.03	0.268
Not living alone	0.04	0.05	−0.07	0.15	0.468
Unpaid care for others 20+ hrs per week	−0.08	0.09	−0.27	0.11	0.396
Emotional loneliness	0.02	0.08	−0.13	0.18	0.754
Social loneliness	0.04	0.06	−0.08	0.16	0.523

Note: (a) refers to p<0.05; (b) refers to p<0.01. A significant interaction was observed between “long-term condition/disability” and “sense of coherence” in relation to the outcome of “quality of life”.