CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 21Health disparities and outcomesDementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAging, Health, and Disability

Loneliness among very old people with and without dementia: prevalence and associated factors in a representative sample

Open access
Lampinen, Josefine, Conradsson, Mia, Nyqvist, Fredrica, Olofsson, Birgitta, Gustafson, Yngve, Nilsson, Ingeborg, Littbrand, Håkan·2022·European Journal of Ageing
DOI 10.1007/s10433-022-00729-8PMC PMC9483318
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Abstract Loneliness and dementia are common among very old (aged ≥ 80 years) people, but whether the prevalence of loneliness differs between very old people with and without dementia is unknown and few studies have investigated associated factors. The aims of the present study were to compare the prevalence of loneliness between people with and without dementia in a representative sample of very old people, and to investigate factors associated with loneliness in the two groups separately. This population-based study was conducted with data on 1176 people aged 85, 90, and ≥ 95 years (mean age 89.0 ± 4.47 years) from the Umeå 85 + /Gerontological Regional Database study conducted in northern Sweden, during year 2000–2017. Structured interviews and assessments were conducted during home visits. Loneliness was assessed using the question “Do you ever feel lonely?.” Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with loneliness in participants with and without dementia. The prevalence of loneliness did not differ between people with and without dementia (50.9% and 46.0%, respectively; p = 0.13). Seven and 24 of 35 variables were univariately associated with the experience of loneliness in participants with and without dementia, respectively. In the final models, living alone and having depressive symptoms were associated with the experience of loneliness in both study groups. In participants without dementia, living in a nursing home was associated with the experience of less loneliness. These findings contribute with important knowledge when developing strategies to reduce loneliness in this growing age group.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s10433-022-00729-8

Cites

54 of 54 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • This study did not find a significant association between living alone and loneliness.

    “this study did not find a significant association.”

    From Factors associated with loneliness in a national study among persons 80 years and older in India in 2017-2018 (2025) · cites this paper as [18]

    The Discussion states that living alone was independently associated with loneliness in participants both with and without dementia. This is contrary to the attributed claim that the study found no significant association. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Other studies among the oldest-old did not find significant gender differences, including in Shanghai, Germany, and Sweden/Finland.

    “Similarly, other studies among the oldest-old did not find significant gender differences, including in Shanghai [36], Germany [8,10,11], and Sweden/Finland [18,27].”

    From Factors associated with loneliness in a national study among persons 80 years and older in India in 2017-2018 (2025) · cites this paper as [18]

    For the Swedish oldest-old sample, Table 3 (Results) shows no significant association between female gender and loneliness in adjusted models. But the Results also report significant gender differences in univariate analyses in both the dementia and non-dementia groups. The claim is supported only if it refers to adjusted findings; this source does not address the Shanghai or German studies cited separately. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Among the oldest-old, social factors associated with loneliness include living alone, being institutionalised, having a small social network size, lower family functioning, reduced chatting with neighbours, and not using social media on the internet.

    “Social factors associated with loneliness among the oldest old included living alone [4,18,27,36], institutionalised [11,27], having a small social network size [10], lower family functioning [36], reduced chatting with neighbours [36], and not using social media on the internet [30].”

    From Factors associated with loneliness in a national study among persons 80 years and older in India in 2017-2018 (2025) · cites this paper as [18]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 55 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th edition, text revision). American Psychiatric Association.
  2. Victor C Bond J The social world of older people: Understanding loneliness and social isolation in later life (growing older) 2009 1 Open University Press

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Lampinen, J., Conradsson, M., Nyqvist, F., Olofsson, B., Gustafson, Y., Nilsson, I., & Littbrand, H.
Affiliations
  • Umeå University (SE)
  • Åbo Akademi University (FI)
Corresponding author
Lampinen, Josefine
ORCID
Venue
European Journal of Ageing
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2022-09-16
Volume
19
Issue
4
Pages
1441-1453
ISSN
  • 1613-9372 (ISSN-L)
  • 1613-9380
DOI
10.1007/s10433-022-00729-8
PMC
PMC9483318
OpenAlex
W4296196081
Cited by
21
References
55
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 1
FWCI
2.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • European Journal of Ageing (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Åbo Akademi University Research Portal (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Vetenskapsrådet (K2014-99X-22610-01- 6)
  • Vårdalstiftelsen
  • the King Gustav V and Queen Viktoria Foundation
  • Region Västerbotten
  • Kempestiftelserna
  • the Research Foundation of the Faculty of Medicine and Odontology at Umeå University
  • the Detlof Research Foundation
  • Demensförbundet
  • funding from the European Union and the Regional Development fund
  • the Interreg IIIA Mitt-Scandi and the Bothnia-Atlantica program
  • The Strategic Research Program in Care Sciences
  • Umea University
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
Keywords
loneliness, dementia, oldest old, prevalence, associated factors, living alone, depressive symptoms, nursing homes

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review