我们住的地方会让我们孤独吗?

Astudy刚刚出版BMC Public Healthinvestigates how the prevalence of loneliness varies between different areas of England, between urban and rural areas, and between the least and the most deprived areas. The researchers find that reporting loneliness is significantly associated with area characteristics. Author Christina Victor tells us more about the study findings in this blog.

Loneliness is not a twenty first century creation. Nor is it the result of the physical distancing, self-isolation and distant and remote social relationships we are experiencing as a result of COVID-19. Like joy or sorrow, loneliness can be seen as part of being human. It has been described and experienced by people of different ages, across different cultures and in different historical periods.

What is loneliness?

当我们的社会关系无法符合我们的期望或欲望时,孤独是我们的感觉或反应。这可能是因为关系的质量是肤浅的或缺乏我们想要的深度和意义。这也可能是因为我们的关系数量比我们想要的要低。当我们如何在线,在线或电话中体验自己的人际关系时,孤独也可能导致我们的期望。这在我们在Covid-19期间经历的遥远和遥远社交中尤其重要。在线或电话交谈中,可以通过使我们与家人和朋友保持联系来打击孤独感。另外,这些类型的接触可能会使我们提醒我们错过个人联系的程度,使我们感到孤独。孤独与独自生活,独自度过或社交孤立的人不同。

为什么孤独很重要?

孤独曾经被视为只有老年人经历的问题。确实,它通常被视为正常衰老过程的一部分。现在很明显,孤独感会影响各个年龄段的人们。这很重要,因为现在被认为是如此严重,被视为公共卫生问题。现在,我们有一位孤独和国家战略的部长来打击孤独。解决孤独感的大部分动力是因为研究已将其与一系列健康问题相关联。其中包括死亡,慢性身体健康问题,例如心血管疾病和糖尿病,抑郁症和心理健康以及健康行为,例如体育锻炼的减少。

孤独越来越被定义为医疗或医疗保健问题,而不是生活质量和生活质量之一

孤独越来越被定义为医疗或医疗保健问题,而不是生活质量和生活质量之一. We know that those people who experience loneliness reported lower levels of wellbeing, quality of life and life satisfaction. In the flurry of activity focused on the health problems associated with loneliness the links with wellbeing are overlooked. However these are very important and are why I would argue that loneliness really matters. All of us, regardless of age, evaluate our wellbeing and quality of life and this can be reduced by loneliness. For this reason alone, we need to understand loneliness and what factors can make people vulnerable to experiencing loneliness. This is especially important for older adults where national and international policies focus on living well in later life and of having a ‘good old age’. These policy goals mean that we need to understand the drivers of loneliness in later life if we are going to develop robust ways of addressing loneliness and support a meaningful and good quality of life for our older citizens.

哪些类型的因素与孤独有关?

有三种不同类型的因素可能使老年人容易受到孤独感。首先,有个人特征,例如丧偶或丧亲,低收入或健康状况不佳。其次,有社区和邻里因素,例如公园的可用性或图书馆等设施的可用性。第三可能存在国家或社会层面的因素,例如对老年人的政策和态度。我们对社区或社区因素如何与孤独感有关。在我们的研究中,我们研究了两个领域的特征 - 多重剥夺和面积类型(城市或农村)的指数。我们研究了他们与4,663名50岁及以上的成年人的两种孤独度的关系,他们参加了2014年的《衰老纵向研究》(ELSA)的2014年浪潮。

识别孤独的地方

Overall, 18% of participants reported that they experienced loneliness and 25% that they often felt lonely in the area where they lived. It is important to remember that just over two thirds of participants, 68%, did not report either form of loneliness. We found no difference for either measure of loneliness between participants living in urban and rural areas. There was no relationship between individual loneliness and the deprivation score for the community where participants resided. There a significant statistical relationship between the level of deprivation of an area and levels of area based loneliness. Those living in the most deprived communities were 53% more likely to report experiencing loneliness in the area than those living in the least deprived areas.

Those living in the most deprived communities were 53% more likely to report experiencing loneliness in the area than those living in the least deprived areas.

Integrating area and place of residence in loneliness research

Existing evidence investigating the factors that make older people, and other age groups, vulnerable to loneliness have focused upon individual characteristics such as marital status or household size. We also have evidence linking loneliness to transitions or changes in circumstances such as retirement, bereavement, becoming a carer or the onset of chronic illness. We have extended our understanding of loneliness by demonstrating a link with deprivation and now need to identify the components of deprivation-housing stock, lack of community facilities, transport, availability of blue-green spaces or lack of community cohesion and trust that are creating lonely places.

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