Loneliness in later life: analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing Christina Victor,

Campaign to End Loneliness Seminar December 2013

Loneliness in later life: analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Christina Victor,

Brunel University

[email protected]

Overview of presentation•Project introduction•Definitions & data•Expectations of loneliness•Prevalence of loneliness•Who is vulnerable to loneliness?•Loneliness: a fluid concept?

Campaign to End Loneliness Seminar

December 2013

Project details• Project title:Loneliness in later life: a longitudinal

analysis using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing• Funder: Economic and Social Research Council –grant

reference: ES/K004077/1• Co-Investigator:Prof Ann Bowling • Research fellow: Dr Jitka Pitkahova • Partner: Campaign to End Loneliness• Duration: April 2013 –October 2014


Project research questions

• To understand longitudinal changes in loneliness for those aged 50+ by addressing 3 substantive research questions:How does loneliness status change over a 10 year period?What factors are associated with changes to feelings of loneliness over this time?Does loneliness predict health outcomes over a 10

year period?Campaign to End Loneliness Seminar

December 2013

What is loneliness?

Loneliness: the difference between desired and actual social relations (Perlman & Pelau, 1981)-either in quantity or quality of relationships (or both)-perhaps also the mode of relationships

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.” - Paul Tillich


Data Secondary analysis – English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)•ELSA started in 2002 and is a longitudinal study of people aged 50+•The study is repeated every 2 years (waves 1 to 5 available) •Modelled on Health & Retirement survey in the USA•Includes bio-medical, health, psychological and social questions about ageing and later life


Measuring loneliness? Can we measure loneliness?

I think it’s a very difficult thing to quantify, ….And I think perhaps it is something which you can’t quantify because it is something which is within oneself perhaps, one’s outlook on life. (F aged 67 married)

Can we measure it if we can’t talk about it? Some argue that language can never convey all that is intended, by words such as loneliness “even if the other manages to visit for a moment, he can never stay” (Mijuskovic, 2012, p67).


Measuring lonelinessMEASURES OF LONELINESS w1 w2 w3 w4 w5

Have you felt lonely much of the time during past week? (Y/N) + + + + +

I often feel lonely living in this area (7-point Likert scale) + +

UCLA loneliness scale (3-item form ) (3-point Likert scale) + + + +

How often do you feel lonely? (3-point Likert scale) + + +

I expect to grow lonelier as get older (5 point Likert scale) +

Old age is a time of loneliness(5 point Likert scale) +


Characterising loneliness• Loneliness an opportunity

for personal growth• Loneliness as pathological

– Associated with high levels of stigma, stereotyping & ‘othering’ of older people as excluded from society

– Seen as being a key problem of ‘old age’


This is not new...‘’A distressing feature of old age is loneliness. All who have done welfare work among the old have found it the most common, if at the same time the most imponderable, of the ills from which the aged suffer, and its frequency was amply confirmed by our study’’ (Rowntree, 1947,52)


Why are we interested in loneliness?

“Social relationships, or the relative lack thereof, constitute a major risk factor for health—rivaling the effect of well established health risk factors such as cigarette smoking, blood pressure, blood lipids, obesity and physical activity”

House, Landis, & Umberson; Science 1988

“Being isolated shortens life and increases disability. It is equivalent to 15 cigarettes a day.” Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive of Public Health England


Beliefs & expectations

• % agreeing old age is a time

of loneliness • % expecting to get more

lonely with age

Source: ELSA Wave 2 analysis Campaign to End Loneliness Seminar December 2013

Loneliness: a self fulfilling prophesy? &

• % of those who are lonely

by expectation of loneliness in old age

• % lonely by expectation of loneliness


Prevalence of loneliness


Source: Victor & Yang, 2012

Prevalence of loneliness


LONELINESS Males <65 years

Females < 65 years

Males > 85 years

Females > 85 years

Low score (3/4) 74% 68% 57% 48%

Medium score (5/6/7) 24% 28% 37% 42%

High score (8/9) 3 % 4% 5 % 10%

‘Risk factors’ for loneliness

Large number of risk factors for loneliness – focus on vulnerability, NOT protective factors

•Vulnerability = widowhood, time alone, expectations of health in old age, psychological ill health, perceived health, perceived increase in loneliness•Protective = increased age, education

Note: the presence of a risk factor does not guarantee loneliness, for example 40% of those widowed in ELSA become lonely but 60% do not

Pets not the answer!


Loneliness across Europe


2004

2011


Loneliness and ethnicity% lonely

Longitudinal changes in loneliness?


Loneliness pathway

UCLA scale-waves 2 to wave 5

Self rating scale-wave 1 to wave 5

Never lonely 66.2% 71.3%Always lonely 6.7% 2.0%

Out of loneliness 9.8% 6.8%Into loneliness 8.7% 4.6%Fluctuation* 8.7% 15.4%

* 8 pathways for UCLA scale and 22 for self rating

Longitudinal changes in loneliness?


Fluctuating pattern of loneliness

0=not lonely1=lonely

Variations in loneliness?Loneliness described as both temporal & spatially experienced.

’I'm lonely of a night. ‘’(Man 16)

‘’Such a lonely life … Saturdays and Sundays are a bit dead for me…’’ (Woman 21)

‘’So long [Sunday] and so lonely.’’

‘’I never sat on my own as my husband was always there’’ (Woman 9) ’’I was always sat in that chair there and whenever I looked up from here she was there. But when she'd gone she was not ‘’ (Man 8).



Loneliness is not at a given time. It comes and it goes.” (73 yr old widow)

Source Sullivan and Victor 2013

0 – Never1 – Rarely2 - Sometimes3 – Often4 – Most of the time

It comes and it goes...


0 – Never1 – Rarely2 - Sometimes3 – Often4 – Most of the time

Source Sullivan and Victor 2013

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Loneliness in later life: analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing Christina Victor,

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