Loneliness among older adults in Europe: The relative importance of early and later life conditions.

ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to study the association between childhood circumstances and loneliness in older adults in Europe. Based on rich information collected by the Survey on Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) on childhood characteristics and individual characteristics at age 50+, the study is able to control for personality traits, socioeconomic and demographic factors, social support and health in later life, and country-specific characteristics. The analyses show strong correlations between life circumstances in childhood and feeling lonely in older age; these correlations remain significant after adjusting for covariates. While ill health is the main factor correlated with loneliness at 50+, as expected, the analysis of the relative importance of the determinants reveal

SUBMITTER: Guthmuller S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9116676 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature