{"title":"The differential effect of emotional loneliness and social loneliness on late-life depression.","authors":"Sze Ting Joanna Ngan, Calvin Pak Wing Cheng","doi":"10.1080/13607863.2024.2363358","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Loneliness adversely affects the prognosis, treatment, and remission of late-life depression. However, no clear distinction of the cause or definition of loneliness was imposed in existing literatures, resulting in mixed findings of the effect of loneliness to late-life depression (LLD). The aim of this study was to explore the association between different facets of loneliness and risk factors of LLD, specifically, if age of onset in LLD possess a different clinical profile in the clinical group.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>101 Chinese patients with depression and 81 healthy elderlies aged 60 or above were assessed on loneliness level, depressive symptoms, cognitive symptoms, physical condition, and motivational level. Univariate analyses were applied in exploring group differences in clinical profiles and multivariate regression to determine variables associated with subsets of loneliness.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>LLD patients reported more emotional loneliness but not social loneliness than healthy controls (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Emotional loneliness was the only significant predictor of suicidal ideation, particularly on patients with early-onset depression, explaining 26.8% of the effect (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Finally, the effect of medical comorbidity on depression severity was mediated by emotional loneliness(<i>Z</i> = 2.159, <i>p</i> = 0.031).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The current research highlights more attention should be placed on the age of onset and medical comorbidity in elderlies with depression. The distinction between emotional loneliness and social loneliness is better understood in the Asian population, reinforcing the importance of taking cultural influence into account when understanding psychological constructs.</p>","PeriodicalId":55546,"journal":{"name":"Aging & Mental Health","volume":" ","pages":"1808-1814"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Aging & Mental Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2024.2363358","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/6/21 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: Loneliness adversely affects the prognosis, treatment, and remission of late-life depression. However, no clear distinction of the cause or definition of loneliness was imposed in existing literatures, resulting in mixed findings of the effect of loneliness to late-life depression (LLD). The aim of this study was to explore the association between different facets of loneliness and risk factors of LLD, specifically, if age of onset in LLD possess a different clinical profile in the clinical group.
Method: 101 Chinese patients with depression and 81 healthy elderlies aged 60 or above were assessed on loneliness level, depressive symptoms, cognitive symptoms, physical condition, and motivational level. Univariate analyses were applied in exploring group differences in clinical profiles and multivariate regression to determine variables associated with subsets of loneliness.
Results: LLD patients reported more emotional loneliness but not social loneliness than healthy controls (p < 0.001). Emotional loneliness was the only significant predictor of suicidal ideation, particularly on patients with early-onset depression, explaining 26.8% of the effect (p < 0.001). Finally, the effect of medical comorbidity on depression severity was mediated by emotional loneliness(Z = 2.159, p = 0.031).
Conclusion: The current research highlights more attention should be placed on the age of onset and medical comorbidity in elderlies with depression. The distinction between emotional loneliness and social loneliness is better understood in the Asian population, reinforcing the importance of taking cultural influence into account when understanding psychological constructs.
期刊介绍:
Aging & Mental Health provides a leading international forum for the rapidly expanding field which investigates the relationship between the aging process and mental health. The journal addresses the mental changes associated with normal and abnormal or pathological aging, as well as the psychological and psychiatric problems of the aging population. The journal also has a strong commitment to interdisciplinary and innovative approaches that explore new topics and methods.
Aging & Mental Health covers the biological, psychological and social aspects of aging as they relate to mental health. In particular it encourages an integrated approach for examining various biopsychosocial processes and etiological factors associated with psychological changes in the elderly. It also emphasizes the various strategies, therapies and services which may be directed at improving the mental health of the elderly and their families. In this way the journal promotes a strong alliance among the theoretical, experimental and applied sciences across a range of issues affecting mental health and aging. The emphasis of the journal is on rigorous quantitative, and qualitative, research and, high quality innovative studies on emerging topics.