Quality of life among different types of Chinese lonely elderly: A social isolation based analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the types and characteristics of lonely elderly from the perspective of social isolation and compare their differences in quality of life (QOL). A cross-sectional survey of 2148 lonely elderly in Shanxi province, China was conducted. The latent profile analysis was used to classify the lonely elderly and describe their characteristics. A hierarchical multilinear regression method was applied to evaluate their differences in QOL. The lonely elderly can be divided into two categories: Class-Ι, in low social isolation with a significant correlation between social isolation and loneliness (p < 0.05), and Class-ΙΙ, in high social isolation with no significant correlation between social isolation and loneliness (p > 0.05).QOL of Class-Ι was significantly higher than that of Class-ΙΙ. Class-ΙΙ was in a state of self-imposed isolation with poor QOL and should be the focus-group during practical intervention.

Keywords: Loneliness; elderly; quality of life; social isolation.