Loneliness among older Chinese individuals: the status quo and relationships with activity-related factors

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Abstract

Background

With the rapid population aging, healthy aging has become a concern for society as a whole. In this study, loneliness and its relationships with activity-related individual factors were examined among older Chinese individuals from the perspective of mental health and daily leisure activities.

Methods

The data were from the fourth investigation of the Sample Survey of the Aged Population in Urban and Rural China, which had a total of 220,506 participants. Activity ability was assessed by the Barthel Activity of Daily Living Index, a self-designed activity type questionnaire was used to evaluate activity participation, and loneliness was measured with a single-item question.

Results

The prevalence of varying degrees of loneliness among Chinese older individuals was 36.6%. The prevalence of loneliness among the older individuals differed significantly by age gender, age, physical health status, annual household income, education level, marital status, living status, ethnic minority status, religious faith and territory of residence. There were differences in activity participation among older Chinese adults in terms of all the demographic factors mentioned above, while there were no significant differences in living status or religious faith, and significant differences in several other demographic factors in terms of activity ability. Self-care ability, as a form of activity ability, and activity participation significantly predicted loneliness among the older participants.

Conclusion

The topic of loneliness among Chinese older individuals is complex and requires greater attention. The buffering effect of activity-related factors on loneliness suggests that old people should improve their activity ability and participate more in daily activities.

Related collections

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Both social isolation and loneliness are associated with increased mortality, but it is uncertain whether their effects are independent or whether loneliness represents the emotional pathway through which social isolation impairs health. We therefore assessed the extent to which the association between social isolation and mortality is mediated by loneliness. We assessed social isolation in terms of contact with family and friends and participation in civic organizations in 6,500 men and women aged 52 and older who took part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing in 2004-2005. A standard questionnaire measure of loneliness was administered also. We monitored all-cause mortality up to March 2012 (mean follow-up 7.25 y) and analyzed results using Cox proportional hazards regression. We found that mortality was higher among more socially isolated and more lonely participants. However, after adjusting statistically for demographic factors and baseline health, social isolation remained significantly associated with mortality (hazard ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval, 1.08-1.48 for the top quintile of isolation), but loneliness did not (hazard ratio 0.92, 95% confidence interval, 0.78-1.09). The association of social isolation with mortality was unchanged when loneliness was included in the model. Both social isolation and loneliness were associated with increased mortality. However, the effect of loneliness was not independent of demographic characteristics or health problems and did not contribute to the risk associated with social isolation. Although both isolation and loneliness impair quality of life and well-being, efforts to reduce isolation are likely to be more relevant to mortality.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Jiazhou Wang: wangjz@psych.ac.cn

Buxin Han: hanbx@psych.ac.cn

Zhengkui Liu: liuzk@psych.ac.cn

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Geriatr

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Geriatr

Title: BMC Geriatrics

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2318

Publication date (Electronic): 10 January 2024

Publication date PMC-release: 10 January 2024

Publication date Collection: 2024

Volume: 24

Electronic Location Identifier: 42

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.454868.3, ISNI 0000 0004 1797 8574, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, ; 100101 Beijing, China

[2 ]Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, ( https://ror.org/05qbk4x57) 100049 Beijing, China

[3 ]Department of Psychology, Henan University, ( https://ror.org/003xyzq10) 475004 Kaifeng, China

[4 ]China Research Center on Aging, 100011 Beijing, China

Article

Publisher ID: 4611

DOI: 10.1186/s12877-023-04611-9

PMC ID: 10782757

PubMed ID: 38200432

SO-VID: 9fd83c67-0e28-4aca-bf11-021a5886cd69

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 8 July 2023

Date accepted : 16 December 2023

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100012166, National Key Research and Development Program of China;

Award ID: 2020YFC2003000

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Geriatric medicine

Keywords: chinese older population,loneliness,activity ability,activity participation

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Geriatric medicine

Keywords: chinese older population, loneliness, activity ability, activity participation