Every life deserves a good end: Characteristics of elderly people suffering loneliness. Results from the population-based KORA AGE study

Aims: Living life with feelings of loneliness and other related negative feelings affect many people in old age. Feelings of loneliness not only reduce mental well-being. Loneliness has emerged as a key social-emotional factor linked to cardiovascular health outcome. Its independent influence on risk for mortality is comparable with well established risk factors such as physical inactivity and smoking. Not everybody, who lives alone, suffers loneliness, but feeling lonely is the emotional response to a perceived discrepancy between desired and actual level of social interaction. To better understand the phenomenon of loneliness, we wanted to identify psychological and behavioural characteristics of old people who suffer feelings of loneliness. Methods: Data are derived from the population-based KORA AGE study. We analyse psychological and behavioural characteristics in 1,079 subjects, aged 65 years and above, in association with loneliness. Standardized questionnaires are used to assess loneliness, social network size, attachment style, perceived stress, depression and resilience. Conclusion: Loneliness is more frequently encountered in the elderly (age >85 years). Women are more likely to experience feelings of loneliness. Further analyses will give us a better behavioural and psychological characterisation of people suffering loneliness.