Ghent University, Department of Sociology, Technicum T1, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
University of Antwerp, Department of Sociology, Sint-Jacobstraat 2, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium.
Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2023 May;108:104923. doi: 10.1016/j.archger.2023.104923. Epub 2023 Jan 6.
The COVID-19 pandemic and related physical distancing measures have disproportionally affected older adults living alone due to their greater social isolation. Unlike previous studies on the subject, the current research recognizes the diversity amongst older adults living alone by considering the impact of marital history. Combining information from Wave 8 of the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement (SHARE), with data of SHARELIFE and the SHARE Corona survey, we investigated the differential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on loneliness in older men (N = 1504) and women (N = 4822) living alone. Logistic multilevel analyses were performed on data from 26 European countries and Israel. For men, we found that the short-term widowed were more likely to report increased loneliness than the medium- and long-term widowed and those living apart together (LAT). For women, the results indicated that the short- and medium-term widowed and the divorced were at greater risk for increased loneliness than those in a LAT relationship. Also, medium-term widowed women were more likely to report increased loneliness than their long-term widowed counterparts. The three hypothesized underlying mechanisms - i.e., (i) the opportunity mechanism, (ii) the expectation mechanism, and (iii) the vulnerability mechanism - only played a small role in explaining the observed differences. In sum, our study highlights the importance of recognizing the diversity within the group of older adults living alone when investigating the effects of the pandemic on loneliness, yet the mechanisms behind the stratifying role of marital history are not fully understood.
新冠疫情和相关的社交隔离措施对独居的老年人造成了不成比例的影响，因为他们的社交隔离程度更高。 与之前关于这一主题的研究不同，当前的研究通过考虑婚姻史的影响，认识到独居老年人的多样性。本研究结合了健康老龄化和退休调查（SHARE）第 8 波的数据，以及 SHARELIFE 和 SHARE 新冠调查的数据，调查了新冠疫情对独居的老年男性（N=1504）和女性（N=4822）孤独感的不同影响。我们对来自 26 个欧洲国家和以色列的数据进行了逻辑多层分析。对于男性，我们发现短期丧偶者比中、长期丧偶者和分居者（LAT）更有可能报告孤独感增加。对于女性，结果表明，短期和中期丧偶者以及离婚者比处于 LAT 关系者更有可能感到孤独感增加。此外，中期丧偶的女性比长期丧偶的女性更有可能报告孤独感增加。三个假设的潜在机制——即（i）机会机制，（ii）期望机制，和（iii）脆弱性机制——仅在解释观察到的差异方面发挥了很小的作用。总之，我们的研究强调了在调查疫情对孤独感的影响时，认识到独居老年人群体内部多样性的重要性，但婚姻史分层作用背后的机制仍不完全清楚。
