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

The impact of disability, long-term conditions, rurality, living alone, and being a carer on health has some evidence base, but the extent to which a strong sense of coherence (SoC), a factor hypothesised to promote wellbeing, may moderate these associations is unknown. A model of physical, environm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare 2021-01, Vol.14, p.2467-2475
Main Authors: van Woerden, Hugo C, Angus, Neil, Kiparoglou, Vasiliki, Atherton, Iain, Leung, Janni
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Cross-sectional studies
disability
Loneliness
Long-term care of the sick
Older people
Original Research
Population
Quality of life
Questionnaires
Response rates
Rural areas
rurality
Side effects
Social aspects
social loneliness
Surveys
Variables
Variance analysis
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Summary:The impact of disability, long-term conditions, rurality, living alone, and being a carer on health has some evidence base, but the extent to which a strong sense of coherence (SoC), a factor hypothesised to promote wellbeing, may moderate these associations is unknown. A model of physical, environmental and social factors on quality of life was tested, with particular emphasis on whether a strong SoC buffered (mitigated) these determinants of quality of life. A cross-sectional postal survey was undertaken of a random sample of 1471 respondents aged over 65 years, across a population of rural individuals. Physical, environmental, and psychological variables were assessed against quality of life using ANOVA and a generalised linear model including the interaction effects of SoC. ANOVA demonstrated that age, gender, long-term conditions or disability (LTC-D), living alone, >20 hours unpaid care for others per week, SoC, and loneliness, were associated with lower quality of life (p0.01), between age and LTC-D, living alone, and poor SoC. Living alone was correlated with emotional and social loneliness; but those with higher SoC were less likely to experience loneliness. In an adjusted generalised linear model, significant associations with a lower quality of life were observed from: LTC-D, emotional loneliness and social loneliness (B= -0.44, -0.30, and -0.39, respectively, all p
ISSN:1178-2390
1178-2390
DOI:10.2147/JMDH.S317393