Yong Ting, Visaria Abhijit, Malhotra Rahul
Gerontology. 2025 Sep 15:1-25. doi: 10.1159/000548267.
In ageing societies, older adults may increasingly take on informal caregiving responsibilities for others. Although some previous studies indicate that informal caregiving among adults is associated with an increased risk of loneliness and social isolation, studies have not focused specifically on informal caregivers who are older adults themselves and therefore may be at increased risk of adverse psychosocial outcomes. In this study, we aim to assess if informal caregiving at older ages impacts loneliness and social networks.
We used data pertaining to 2577 participants in a nationally representative longitudinal survey of community-dwelling older adults in Singapore, a rapidly ageing Asian country. To address selection bias into caregiving, the relationship between caregiving status with loneliness and social networks was estimated using inverse probability weighted regression adjustment, controlling for multiple demographic and health characteristics.
Informal caregiving among older adults impacted loneliness and was related to a 28.9% higher loneliness score. However, informal caregiving at older ages was not related to either social networks overall or family- and friends-focused social networks.
Older adult informal caregivers are a vulnerable subgroup at a higher risk of loneliness compared to non-caregivers. Although informal caregiving does not impact social networks, older adult informal caregivers experience loneliness, i.e., a perceived discrepancy between their actual and desired social relationships. Our study suggests the need for further examination of the underlying mechanisms between informal caregiving at older ages and loneliness, as well as a special focus on older adult caregivers in efforts and interventions to address loneliness at older ages.
在老龄化社会中，老年人可能越来越多地承担起对他人的非正式照料责任。尽管先前的一些研究表明，成年人中的非正式照料与孤独感和社会隔离风险增加有关，但这些研究并未专门关注那些本身就是老年人的非正式照料者，因此他们可能面临更高的不良心理社会后果风险。在本研究中，我们旨在评估老年人的非正式照料是否会影响孤独感和社会网络。
我们使用了来自新加坡一项全国代表性的社区居住老年人纵向调查的2577名参与者的数据，新加坡是一个快速老龄化的亚洲国家。为了解决照料选择偏差问题，我们使用逆概率加权回归调整来估计照料状态与孤独感和社会网络之间的关系，并控制多种人口统计学和健康特征。
老年人中的非正式照料影响了孤独感，孤独感得分高出28.9%。然而，老年人的非正式照料与整体社会网络或以家庭和朋友为重点的社会网络均无关。
与非照料者相比，老年非正式照料者是一个更易受伤害的亚群体，孤独风险更高。尽管非正式照料不会影响社会网络，但老年非正式照料者会感到孤独，即他们实际的和期望的社会关系之间存在感知差异。我们的研究表明，需要进一步研究老年人非正式照料与孤独感之间的潜在机制，以及在应对老年人孤独问题的努力和干预措施中特别关注老年照料者。
