Zaccaria, Daniele and Masotti, Barbara and Hermann, Francois and Von Gunten, A. and Jopp, Daniela and Cavalli, Stefano (2023) Loneliness among centenarians living at home and in long-term care facilities: Results from the SWISS100 study, Overcoming inequalities and promoting sustainability: Opportunities and challenges for ageing societies. In: 13th Interdisciplinary Conference Aging & Social Change, 15.09.2023, Ancona, Italia. (Unpublished)
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
As the OECD reports, there is an increasing demand for long-term residential care, especially for the oldest-old. However, some scholars underscored that living in long-term care facilities may lead to social exclusion, more specifically to the risk of being socially isolated and lonely. Nevertheless, research comparing social isolation and loneliness between the noninstitutionalised and institutionalised oldest-old is still scant. We investigate sociodemographic and health correlates of social isolation and loneliness in institutionalised and home-dwelling centenarians and the association with institutionalisation per se. Data were collected in 2021 through phone interviews in the context of SWISS100, an ongoing study of centenarians living in Switzerland. The sample included 98 institutionalised and 56 home-dwelling centenarians recruited via in-person or proxy interviews. We applied descriptive statistics to evaluate differences in social isolation and loneliness between institutionalised and home-dwelling centenarians and ordered logistic regression models to assess the association between isolation and loneliness and individual characteristics (e.g., education, subjective health). On average, institutionalised centenarians reported fewer social contacts and higher loneliness than home-dwelling ones. Sociodemographic and health indicators differentially predicted social isolation and loneliness in these two populations. Furthermore, institutionalisation per se showed a significant effect on loneliness but not on social isolation. Our findings show that living settings shape centenarians’ levels of social isolation and loneliness, differentiating the contribution of personal determinants. Furthermore, living in long-term care facilities plays by itself an independent role in predicting loneliness. This prompts considering carefully the living environment when analysing determinants of social exclusion of the very old.
| Item Type: | Article in conference proceedings or Presentation at a conference (Lecture) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Social studies Social studies > Sociology |
| Department/unit: | Dipartimento economia aziendale, sanità e sociale > Centro competenze anziani |
| Depositing User: | Roberta Torriani |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Nov 2023 13:47 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Nov 2023 13:48 |
| URI: | http://repository.supsi.ch/id/eprint/14725 |
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