Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, Hamburg, Germany.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2022 Aug;37(8). doi: 10.1002/gps.5785.
Restricted knowledge exists with regard to the association between grandchild care and loneliness among older Europeans. Hence, our goal was to investigate the association between the onset of grandchild care and loneliness in different European regions and stratified by sex longitudinally.
METHODS/DESIGN: Longitudinal data were taken from waves 5 to 6 of the 'Survey of Health Ageing, and Retirement in Europe' (SHARE) (n = 83,416 observations). Loneliness was assessed using the established three-item version of the Revised UCLA Loneliness scale. Transitions into grandchild care (= onset of grandchild care) served as key independent variable. It was adjusted for several covariates in regression analysis. Linear FE regressions with cluster-robust standard errors were used to mitigate the challenge of unobserved heterogeneity.
Linear FE regressions showed that the onset of grandchild care was significantly associated with an increase in loneliness levels among women (but not men) in Southern Europe (β = 0.28, p = 0.01), whereas the onset of grandchild care was not significantly associated with changes in loneliness levels in both sexes in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe and Israel.
Our study emphasized the association between the onset of grandchild care and increases in loneliness among women in Southern Europe. Efforts (e.g., respite services) are required to support this group to avoid loneliness.
关于孙辈照料与欧洲老年人孤独感之间的关联，相关知识有限。因此，我们的目标是从纵向角度，按性别在不同欧洲地区探究孙辈照料开始与孤独感之间的关联。
方法/设计：纵向数据来自“欧洲健康老龄化、退休和养老金调查”（SHARE）第 5 波至第 6 波（n=83416 次观察）。采用修订版加州大学洛杉矶分校孤独量表的三项目版本评估孤独感。孙辈照料的转变（=孙辈照料开始）作为主要的独立变量。在回归分析中，它经过了多项协变量的调整。采用带聚类稳健标准误差的线性 FE 回归，以减轻未观察到的异质性的挑战。
线性 FE 回归表明，孙辈照料开始与南欧女性（而非男性）的孤独感水平显著升高有关（β=0.28，p=0.01），而在西欧、东欧、北欧和以色列，孙辈照料开始与两性的孤独感水平变化均无显著关联。
本研究强调了孙辈照料开始与南欧女性孤独感升高之间的关联。需要努力（例如，暂托服务）来支持这一群体，以避免孤独感。
