CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 96Aging, Health, and DisabilityHealth disparities and outcomesAging, Elder Care, and Social Issues

Impact of living alone on institutionalization and mortality: A population-based longitudinal study

Pimouguet, Clément, Rizzuto, Debora, Schön, Pär, Shakersain, Behnaz, Angleman, Sara, Lagergren, Marten, Fratiglioni, Laura, Xu, Weili·2016·The European Journal of Public Health
DOI 10.1093/eurpub/ckv052
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Living alone is common among elderly people in Western countries, and studies on its relationship with institutionalization and all-cause mortality have shown inconsistent results. We investigated that the impact of living alone on institutionalization and mortality in a population-based cohort of elderly people. METHODS: Data originate from the Swedish National study on Aging and Care-Kungsholmen. Participants aged ≥66 years and living at home (n = 2404) at baseline underwent interviews and clinical examination. Data on living arrangements were collected in interviews. All participants were followed for 6 years; survival status and admission into institutions were tracked continuously through administrative registers from 2001 to 2007. Data were analysed using Cox proportional hazard models, competing risk regressions and Laplace regressions with adjustment for potential confounders. RESULTS: Of the 2404 participants, 1464 (60.9%) lived alone at baseline. During the follow-up, 711 (29.6%) participants died, and 185 (15.0%) were institutionalized. In the multi-adjusted Cox model, the hazard ratio (HR) of mortality in those living alone was 1.35 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18 to 1.54), especially among men (HR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.18 to 1.76). Living alone shortened survival by 0.6 years and was associated with the risk of institutionalization (HR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.77) after taking death into account as a competing risk. CONCLUSIONS: Living alone is associated with elevated mortality, especially among men and an increased risk of institutionalization. Over a 6-year period, living alone was related to a half year reduction in survival among elderly people in Sweden.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/eurpub/ckv052

Cites

45 of 45 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

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?

  • Social isolation, feelings of loneliness, low engagement in social activity, and living alone simultaneously confer risk for impaired health and poorer wellbeing.

    “Social isolation, feelings of loneliness, low engagement in social activity, and living alone simultaneously confer risk for impaired health and poorer wellbeing (Kharicha et al., 2007;Klinenberg, 2016;Pimouguet et al., 2015;Udell et al., 2012).”

    From Living alone and cognitive function in later life (2019) · cites this paper as Pimouguet et al., 2015

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Pimouguet, C., Rizzuto, D., Schön, P., Shakersain, B., Angleman, S., Lagergren, M., Fratiglioni, L., & Xu, W.
Affiliations
  • Université de Bordeaux (FR)
  • Stockholm University (SE)
ORCID
Venue
The European Journal of Public Health
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2015-03-27
Volume
26
Issue
1
Pages
182-187
ISSN
  • 1101-1262 (ISSN-L)
  • 1464-360X
DOI
10.1093/eurpub/ckv052
OpenAlex
W2116628389
Cited by
96
References
45
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 3
FWCI
5.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • European Journal of Public Health (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Gun och Bertil Stohnes Stiftelse
  • Stiftelsen Tornspiran
  • Forskningsrådet för Arbetsliv och Socialvetenskap
  • Karolinska Institutet
  • Vetenskapsrådet
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Aging, Health, and Disability
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Aging, Elder Care, and Social Issues
Keywords
living alone, institutionalization, all-cause mortality, older adults, living arrangements, gender differences, survival, nursing home admission, competing risks
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Family Characteristics, Female, Homes for the Aged, Humans, Institutionalization, Life Expectancy, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Nursing Homes, Sex Factors, Sweden

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