Loneliness and its correlates amongst elderly attending non-communicable disease rural clinic attached to a tertiary care centre of North India.

BACKGROUND

Psychological and sociological factors like loneliness have a noteworthy influence on the aging. Very less is known about loneliness amongst the elderly populations living with various Non-communicable diseases.

AIM: The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and correlates of loneliness among elderly patients with Non-communicable diseases.

METHODOLOGY: 296 patients attending the chronic disease clinic of two Community Health Centres were evaluated on University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale (UCLA LS), Geriatric Depression Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7 scale) and Vulnerability to Abuse Screening Scale.

RESULTS

More than half (55.4%) of the participants experienced loneliness as per the three item UCLA LS. When the total scores of UCLA scale were used to evaluate the severity of loneliness, half of the study participants had either moderate (N = 39; 13.2%), moderately high (N = 52; 17.6%) and high (N = 55; 18.6%) level of loneliness. Higher proportion of patients experiencing loneliness had anxiety and reported abuse. Significant predictors of loneliness included presence of diabetes mellitus or hypertension, generalized anxiety disorder and abuse.

CONCLUSION

Older adults living with non-communicable diseases are at a higher risk for loneliness. Mutual help groups kind of models can be developed to help in "re-peopling" elderly. Primary health centres should help in improving the overall health and morale amongst the elderly by stamping down their apprehensions and anxieties.