Loneliness as a determinant of health: evidence from the Health Survey of Catalonia.

Helena M Hernández-Pizarro, Albert Prades-Colomé, Guillem López-Casasnovas
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Abstract

Objective: This study investigates the health effects of loneliness among adults (18+ years) and elderly adults (60+ years).

Method: Using data from the Health Survey of Catalonia (ESCA), 2013-2019, the effects of loneliness on health and healthcare utilization outcomes are estimated. Ordinary least squares estimates are provided to explore the channels affecting such relationships.

Results: Loneliness is significantly associated to worse health outcomes in all age groups. Among adults, it reduces self-perceived health by 7.1%, increases multi-morbidities by 22.1%, and raises the probability of depression and anxiety by 65.8%. Consequently, a positive and strong association between suffering from loneliness and the use of healthcare resources is documented: with a 7.4% rise in medication use, 20.9% more emergency care visits, and 6.1% higher primary care use. Results for the elderly are aligned with adults, although the magnitude associated to self-perceived health is substantially greater (13.2%). Channels exploration identifies living alone (with a 97.3% increase) and poor household habitability (33.5% increase) as key predictors in all the analysis. Being foreign (60.3% increase in the adult population and 106% in the elderly population) and gender (women, 26.8% for the adult population and 27.5% in the elderly population) become relevant factors explaining loneliness.

Conclusions: This study documents the impact of loneliness in Catalonia. Loneliness is associated to significant worse health and more use of healthcare. Tackling individuals with higher risk factors for loneliness could help preventing its concerning consequences on health and healthcare system.

孤独是健康的决定因素:来自加泰罗尼亚健康调查的证据。
目的:探讨成人(18岁以上)和老年人(60岁以上)孤独感对健康的影响。方法:利用2013-2019年加泰罗尼亚健康调查(ESCA)的数据,估计孤独感对健康和医疗保健利用结果的影响。提供了普通最小二乘估计来探索影响这种关系的渠道。结果:在所有年龄组中,孤独感与较差的健康结果显著相关。在成年人中,它使自我感觉健康下降7.1%,使多种疾病发病率增加22.1%,使抑郁和焦虑的可能性增加65.8%。因此,孤独感与医疗保健资源的使用之间存在着积极而强烈的联系:药物使用增加了7.4%,急诊就诊增加了20.9%,初级保健使用增加了6.1%。老年人的结果与成年人一致,尽管与自我感知健康相关的幅度要大得多(13.2%)。渠道探索发现,独居(增加97.3%)和家庭宜居性差(增加33.5%)是所有分析中的关键预测因素。外国人(成年人口增加60.3%,老年人口增加106%)和性别(女性,成年人口增加26.8%,老年人口增加27.5%)成为解释孤独的相关因素。结论:本研究记录了加泰罗尼亚孤独感的影响。孤独与健康状况明显恶化和更多地使用医疗保健有关。解决具有较高孤独风险因素的个体可以帮助预防其对健康和医疗保健系统的影响。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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