IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i14p7213-d589138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lonely in the City–Sociodemographic Status and Somatic Morbidities as Predictors of Loneliness and Depression among Seniors–Preliminary Results

Author

Listed:
  • Kasper Sipowicz

    (Department of Interdisciplinary Disability Studies, The Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw, Szczesliwicka 40, 02-353 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Marlena Podlecka

    (Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw, Department of Neuroses, Personality Disorders and Eating Disorders, Sobieskiego 9, 02-957 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Łukasz Mokros

    (Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Łódź, Kopcinskiego 22, 90-153 Łódź, Poland)

  • Tadeusz Pietras

    (Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw, Second Department of Psychiatry, Sobieskiego 9, 02-957 Warsaw, Poland)

Abstract

Up to a third of the population of older adults has been estimated to suffer from feelings of loneliness, which is considered a risk factor of depression. The aim of this paper is to compare the perceived level of loneliness and depression in seniors living in the country and in the cities and assess somatic morbidity and sociodemographic status as predictors of loneliness and depressiveness. n = 92 older adults in primary care units filled out a set of questionnaires: authors’ survey on sociodemographic data and morbidities, Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI, to measure depressiveness) and De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (DJGLS, to assess loneliness). There was a strong, positive and statistically significant correlation between the BDI and DJGLS scores (R = 0.855, p < 0.001). City residents had on average higher BDI and DJGLS scores. Linear regression models were constructed to predict BDI and DJGLS scores. The set of statistically significant predictors were similar for BDI and DJGLS. Sociodemographic status and somatic morbidities accounted for around 90% of variance of depressiveness and loneliness scores in the studied group. Living alone was found to be the strongest relative predictor of both loneliness and depressiveness in the studied sample of the older adults. Our current results suggest that there might be a need to improve social support in the late adulthood as an intervention to diminish the sense of loneliness and depressiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Kasper Sipowicz & Marlena Podlecka & Łukasz Mokros & Tadeusz Pietras, 2021. "Lonely in the City–Sociodemographic Status and Somatic Morbidities as Predictors of Loneliness and Depression among Seniors–Preliminary Results," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-11, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:14:p:7213-:d:589138
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7213/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7213/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura Ponce de León & Jean Pierre Lévy Mangin & Soledad Ballesteros, 2020. "Psychosocial Determinants of Quality of Life and Active Aging. A Structural Equation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-10, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rachelle Meisters & Polina Putrik & Daan Westra & Hans Bosma & Dirk Ruwaard & Maria Jansen, 2021. "Is Loneliness an Undervalued Pathway between Socio-Economic Disadvantage and Health?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-13, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Gattuso & Stefania Butti & Inaihá Laureano Benincá & Andrea Greco & Michela Di Trani & Francesca Morganti, 2024. "A Structural Equation Model for Understanding the Relationship between Cognitive Reserve, Autonomy, Depression and Quality of Life in Aging," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(9), pages 1-13, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:14:p:7213-:d:589138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.