Loneliness and emergency and planned hospitalizations in a community sample of older adults.
OBJECTIVE
To examine whether loneliness is independently associated with emergency hospitalization and planned hospital inpatient admissions in a population sample of older adults.


METHODS
Nationally representative cross-sectional interviews in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.


METHODS
Private homes in the community.


METHODS
Randomly selected older people in the community (aged ≥65, N=2,033).


METHODS
Emergency hospitalization and planned hospital admissions.


RESULTS
Eleven percent of the sample had an emergency hospitalization, and 15% had a planned hospital admission. Forty-two percent reported being bothered by loneliness. A higher frequency of loneliness was associated with emergency hospitalization only (odds ratio=1.29, 95% confidence interval=1.08-1.55), and this association was independent of a range of potential confounders in multivariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
In this community-based sample of older adults, greater loneliness was independently associated with emergency hospitalization but not planned inpatient admissions.
Molloy
Gerard J
GJ
Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland. g.j.molloy@stir.ac.uk
McGee
Hannah M
HM
O'Neill
Desmond
D
Conroy
Ronan M
RM
D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007494:Ireland / Q000453:epidemiology; D008132:Loneliness; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012944:Social Support