Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Amsterdam UMC - Locatie VUMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Amsterdam UMC - Locatie VUMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2021 May;75(5):464-469. doi: 10.1136/jech-2020-214217. Epub 2020 Nov 5.
Loneliness is associated with several adverse mental and physical health outcomes in older adults. Previous studies have shown that a variety of individual-level and perceived area-level characteristics are associated with loneliness. This study examined the associations of objectively measured social and physical neighbourhood characteristics with loneliness.
We used cross-sectional data from 1959 older adults (63-98 years) who participated in the Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam (LASA; wave 2011/12) and the Health and Living Conditions of the Population of Eindhoven and Surroundings study (GLOBE; wave 2014) in the Netherlands. Study-specific loneliness scores were harmonised across both cohort studies and divided into tertiles denoting low, medium and high levels of loneliness. Objectively measured neighbourhood characteristics, including area-level percentages of low educated residents, social security beneficiaries and unoccupied dwellings, average income, crime levels and land use mix, were linked to individual-level data. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations of interest.
There was no statistical evidence for an association of the included neighbourhood characteristics with loneliness. Although not statistically significant, the observed associations suggested that participants living in neighbourhoods with more heterogeneous land use mix were less likely to have a medium and high level of loneliness than those living in more homogeneous neighbourhoods in terms of land use mix (OR=0.54, 95% CI=0.18-1.67; OR=0.67, 95% CI=0.21-2.11).
The results indicate that the included objectively measured social and physical neighbourhood characteristics are not associated with loneliness in old age.
孤独感与老年人的多种不良身心健康结果有关。先前的研究表明，各种个体层面和感知的区域层面特征与孤独感有关。本研究探讨了客观测量的社会和物理邻里特征与孤独感的关联。
我们使用了来自荷兰阿姆斯特丹纵向老龄化研究（LASA；2011/12 波次）和埃因霍温及其周边地区人口健康和生活状况研究（GLOBE；2014 波次）的 1959 名年龄在 63-98 岁的老年人的横断面数据。两项队列研究中特定的孤独感评分是相互协调的，并分为表示低、中、高水平孤独感的三分位数。客观测量的邻里特征，包括区域层面受教育程度低的居民、社会保障受益人和空闲住宅的比例、平均收入、犯罪水平和土地利用混合，与个体水平数据相关联。采用多变量逻辑回归分析来检验相关关联。
没有统计学证据表明所包括的邻里特征与孤独感有关。尽管没有统计学意义，但观察到的关联表明，与居住在土地利用混合度较单一的邻里的参与者相比，居住在土地利用混合度较多样化的邻里的参与者，处于中高水平孤独感的可能性较低（OR=0.54，95%CI=0.18-1.67；OR=0.67，95%CI=0.21-2.11）。
结果表明，所包括的客观测量的社会和物理邻里特征与老年人的孤独感无关。
