Timmermans, E;
Motoc, I;
Noordzij, JM;
Beenackers, MA;
Wissa, R;
Sarr, A;
Gurer, A;
... Huisman, M; + view all
(2020)
Social and physical neighbourhood characteristics and loneliness among older adults: results from the MINDMAP project.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
10.1136/jech-2020-214217.
(In press).
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Abstract
Background: Loneliness is associated with several adverse mental and physical health outcomes in older adults. Previous studies have shown that a variety of individual-level and perceived area-level characteristics are associated with loneliness. This study examined the associations of objectively measured social and physical neighbourhood characteristics with loneliness. Methods: We used cross-sectional data from 1959 older adults (63–98 years) who participated in the Longitudinal Ageing Study Amsterdam (LASA; wave 2011/12) and the Health and Living Conditions of the Population of Eindhoven and Surroundings study (GLOBE; wave 2014) in the Netherlands. Study-specific loneliness scores were harmonised across both cohort studies and divided into tertiles denoting low, medium and high levels of loneliness. Objectively measured neighbourhood characteristics, including area-level percentages of low educated residents, social security beneficiaries and unoccupied dwellings, average income, crime levels and land use mix, were linked to individual-level data. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations of interest. Results: There was no statistical evidence for an association of the included neighbourhood characteristics with loneliness. Although not statistically significant, the observed associations suggested that participants living in neighbourhoods with more heterogeneous land use mix were less likely to have a medium and high level of loneliness than those living in more homogeneous neighbourhoods in terms of land use mix (ORmedium=0.54, 95% CI=0.18–1.67; ORhigh=0.67, 95% CI=0.21–2.11). Conclusion: The results indicate that the included objectively measured social and physical neighbourhood characteristics are not associated with loneliness in old age.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Social and physical neighbourhood characteristics and loneliness among older adults: results from the MINDMAP project |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/jech-2020-214217 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-214217 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10114384 |
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