Change Zhu, Christine A Walsh, Lulin Zhou, Xinjie Zhang
{"title":"The impact of unmet community service demand on the loneliness of older adults: based on CLHLS (2008-2018).","authors":"Change Zhu, Christine A Walsh, Lulin Zhou, Xinjie Zhang","doi":"10.1007/s00127-024-02760-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>To explore the impact of unmet community service demands on loneliness among older adults.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Based on the longitudinal tracking data of CLHLS (2008-2018), latent growth curve model (LGCM) was used to describe the trajectory of loneliness among older adults. Panel regression was used to analyze the impact of unmet community service demands on loneliness, and latent classification analysis (LCA) was used to classify the older adults and analyze the differences in loneliness among different types of older adults.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 1445 older people participated in all four surveys, and 22.4% of them reported feeling lonely. From 2008 to 2018, there was a significant non-linear increase in loneliness, with average values of 1.77, 1.81, 1.83, and 1.96, respectively. The level of community service supply (1.31) was far from meeting the demand level (5.11). Unmet community service demands were associated with a higher prevalence of loneliness (β = 0.012, P = 0.003, 95% CI = [0.004, 0.020]). In addition, according to the demand difference for community services, older adults were classified into the comprehensive demand type (Type I) and the medical demand type (Type II). The loneliness of Type I older adults was significantly higher than that of Type II (P < 0.05).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>With the passage of time, loneliness of older adults is showing an accelerating upward trend. Unmet community services can lead to enhanced loneliness among older adults, and the higher the demand for community services, the stronger the loneliness. The government should increase the supply of community services to meet the basic and socio-emotional needs of the older adults to reduce loneliness.</p>","PeriodicalId":49510,"journal":{"name":"Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-024-02760-9","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Purpose: To explore the impact of unmet community service demands on loneliness among older adults.
Methods: Based on the longitudinal tracking data of CLHLS (2008-2018), latent growth curve model (LGCM) was used to describe the trajectory of loneliness among older adults. Panel regression was used to analyze the impact of unmet community service demands on loneliness, and latent classification analysis (LCA) was used to classify the older adults and analyze the differences in loneliness among different types of older adults.
Results: A total of 1445 older people participated in all four surveys, and 22.4% of them reported feeling lonely. From 2008 to 2018, there was a significant non-linear increase in loneliness, with average values of 1.77, 1.81, 1.83, and 1.96, respectively. The level of community service supply (1.31) was far from meeting the demand level (5.11). Unmet community service demands were associated with a higher prevalence of loneliness (β = 0.012, P = 0.003, 95% CI = [0.004, 0.020]). In addition, according to the demand difference for community services, older adults were classified into the comprehensive demand type (Type I) and the medical demand type (Type II). The loneliness of Type I older adults was significantly higher than that of Type II (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: With the passage of time, loneliness of older adults is showing an accelerating upward trend. Unmet community services can lead to enhanced loneliness among older adults, and the higher the demand for community services, the stronger the loneliness. The government should increase the supply of community services to meet the basic and socio-emotional needs of the older adults to reduce loneliness.
期刊介绍:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology is intended to provide a medium for the prompt publication of scientific contributions concerned with all aspects of the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders - social, biological and genetic.
In addition, the journal has a particular focus on the effects of social conditions upon behaviour and the relationship between psychiatric disorders and the social environment. Contributions may be of a clinical nature provided they relate to social issues, or they may deal with specialised investigations in the fields of social psychology, sociology, anthropology, epidemiology, health service research, health economies or public mental health. We will publish papers on cross-cultural and trans-cultural themes. We do not publish case studies or small case series. While we will publish studies of reliability and validity of new instruments of interest to our readership, we will not publish articles reporting on the performance of established instruments in translation.
Both original work and review articles may be submitted.