Department of Gerontology, Gerontology Research Centre, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
School of Social Work, MacEwan University, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
J Aging Health. 2023 Jun;35(5-6):439-452. doi: 10.1177/08982643221129686. Epub 2022 Nov 16.
ObjectivesThis paper examines the longitudinal effects of changes in the association between loneliness and depressive symptoms during the pandemic among older adults (65+). Baseline (2011-2015) and Follow-up 1 (2015-2018) from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), and the Baseline and Exit waves of the CLSA COVID-19 study (April-December, 2020) ( = 12,469) were used. Loneliness was measured using the 3-item UCLA Loneliness Scale and depression using the CES_D- 9. Loneliness is associated with depressive symptoms pre-pandemic; and changes in level of loneliness between FUP1 and the COVID Exit survey, adjusting for covariates. No interaction between loneliness and caregiving, and with multimorbidity, on depressive symptoms were observed, and several covariates exhibited associations with depressive symptoms. Strong support is found for an association between loneliness on depressive symptoms among older adults during the pandemic. Public health approaches addressing loneliness could reduce the burden of depression on older populations.
本文研究了老年人（65 岁及以上）在大流行期间孤独感与抑郁症状之间关联变化的纵向影响。研究数据来自加拿大老龄化纵向研究（CLSA）的基线（2011-2015 年）和随访 1 期（2015-2018 年），以及 CLSA COVID-19 研究的基线和退出期（2020 年 4 月至 12 月）（=12469）。孤独感采用 UCLA 孤独量表的 3 项指标衡量，抑郁症状采用 CES-D-9 量表衡量。结果发现，孤独感与大流行前的抑郁症状有关；并调整了协变量后，孤独感在 FUP1 和 COVID 退出调查之间的水平变化。未观察到孤独感与照顾和多疾病之间与抑郁症状的交互作用，并且有几个协变量与抑郁症状有关。研究结果强烈支持孤独感与大流行期间老年人抑郁症状之间的关联。针对孤独感的公共卫生措施可以减轻老年人群的抑郁负担。
