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    What Is Loneliness?: Loneliness at Local and Neighbourhood Level Summary July 2015

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    Khadijah Wae
    1) Loneliness is a subjective emotional state of feeling a lack of social interaction or close relationships, rather than just being socially isolated. 2) The document analyzes data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to identify significant risk factors for loneliness in older adults, such as poor health, being widowed, and living alone. 3) Using census data and the risk factors identified, the authors developed a method to measure loneliness risk down to the neighborhood level and identify specific areas with the highest loneliness risk scores.

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    What Is Loneliness?: Loneliness at Local and Neighbourhood Level Summary July 2015

    Uploaded by

    Khadijah Wae
    15 views3 pages
    1) Loneliness is a subjective emotional state of feeling a lack of social interaction or close relationships, rather than just being socially isolated. 2) The document analyzes data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to identify significant risk factors for loneliness in older adults, such as poor health, being widowed, and living alone. 3) Using census data and the risk factors identified, the authors developed a method to measure loneliness risk down to the neighborhood level and identify specific areas with the highest loneliness risk scores.

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    loneliness 2015

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    1) Loneliness is a subjective emotional state of feeling a lack of social interaction or close relationships, rather than just being socially isolated. 2) The document analyzes data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to identify significant risk factors for loneliness in older adults, such as poor health, being widowed, and living alone. 3) Using census data and the risk factors identified, the authors developed a method to measure loneliness risk down to the neighborhood level and identify specific areas with the highest loneliness risk scores.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    15 views3 pages

    What Is Loneliness?: Loneliness at Local and Neighbourhood Level Summary July 2015

    Uploaded by

    Khadijah Wae
    1) Loneliness is a subjective emotional state of feeling a lack of social interaction or close relationships, rather than just being socially isolated. 2) The document analyzes data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to identify significant risk factors for loneliness in older adults, such as poor health, being widowed, and living alone. 3) Using census data and the risk factors identified, the authors developed a method to measure loneliness risk down to the neighborhood level and identify specific areas with the highest loneliness risk scores.

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    Loneliness at local and neighbourhood level

    Summary July 2015

    What is loneliness?
    Loneliness can be understood as an individual’s personal, subjective sense of lacking
    desired affection, closeness, and social interaction with others. Loneliness is not the same
    as social isolation. Although it has a social aspect, loneliness is also defined by an
    individual’s subjective emotional state.

    How can it be measured?


    Age UK’s research is the first and, so far, only evidence linking loneliness with local risk. All
    other attempts to measure and chart loneliness are measures of social isolation, no matter
    what they claim to be. Superimposing factors identified in the literature as being associated
    with loneliness without knowing their weightings (see below) is also not a valid measure of
    loneliness risk at any level, as simply adding the factors together and not weighting them in
    fact means that they are all weighted equally, which our research shows is far from accurate.

    This is not only because some of the factors associated with loneliness do not come out as
    significant in our analysis, but because some effects are more than 10 times stronger in their
    association than others and, if they are not weighted properly, the overall picture – the basis
    of all the subsequent statistical data – is totally wrong.

    For this work, we are looking for risk of being lonely in later life (aged 65 or over), both for
    the individual and between areas in order to identify what the main risk factors associated
    with loneliness are, and where to look for the highest risk.

    What is the best way of finding out if someone is lonely?


    There have been several attempts to “objectivise” loneliness and define it in terms of terms
    of isolation and loss. Such measures are used by the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing
    (ELSA) but it also asks “How often do you feel lonely”, giving choices of frequency. Results
    are then given for those who say “often” (in Age UK survey, in line with Victor’s survey
    questions “often” or “always”).

    What is ELSA and why are we using it?


    ELSA is properly validated and administered by UCL, Manchester University, IFS and Nat
    Cen. Wave 5 (2010-12 used here) had a sample size of 10,274 people aged 50+ in England.

    It is accepted by academics and politicians

    It asks the right question about loneliness

    Phil Rossall, Jose Iparraguirre and Susan Davidson July 2015


    Disadvantages: sample size still not big enough to cover all neighbourhoods (blanks),
    attrition, representativeness (although adjusted to allow for these)

    What can the ELSA analysis tell us at national level


    (England)?
    By regression analysis of the factors associated with the loneliness answers, we have
    identified all the significant risk factors (i.e. left out all those which show an association but
    not sufficiently robust to exclude chance), identified their individual effect on the overall score
    (i.e. weighted them by their relative importance) and worked out the risk odds for each
    factor.

    What is the recipe for loneliness in later life?


    Loneliness: significant factors rank order,
    England, ELSA Wave 5 2010-2012

    Std.
    Variables Estimate Error z value Prob
    Constant -2.6200 0.6119 -4.2820 0.0000
    Self-reported Health - Poor 2.0344 0.3894 5.2250 0.0000
    Self-reported Health - Fair 1.5819 0.3689 4.2880 0.0000
    Household Size -1.0402 0.2402 -4.3310 0.0000
    Widowed 1.0317 0.2582 3.9960 0.0001
    Self-reported Health - Good 0.9842 0.3640 2.7040 0.0069
    Eye conditions 3+ 0.8551 0.5056 1.6910 0.0908
    Pets 0.4284 0.1362 3.1450 0.0017
    Difficulty with 2+ ADL 0.3759 0.1779 2.1120 0.0347
    Age group 75-79 -0.3542 0.1945 -1.8210 0.0686
    Difficulty with 1 ADL 0.3169 0.1692 1.8720 0.0612

    What can the Census (2011) tell us?


    Working with the Office for National Statistics using close proxy measures from the Census,
    we have identified almost all the risks at lower level geographies.

    The formula derived from the national (ELSA) analysis can then be applied to the following
    areas: local authority, middle super output area (large neighbourhood), lower super output
    area (roughly, ward size) and output area (street/ postcode level).

    As the information is from a Census rather than a survey, the usual problems of sample size,
    disclosure/ anonymity and minority-group representativeness do not apply or are easily dealt
    with. We are currently in a position to assess relative risk of loneliness for areas down to
    output areas, for trial “sense-checking” by Age UK partners around England.

    Phil Rossall, Jose Iparraguirre and Susan Davidson July 2015


    The risk does not depend on how many people aged 65+ live in an area (although, in a very
    small number of neighbourhoods, there are too few to count) and the range of risk is greater
    in the smaller areas. Comparing those areas most at risk with those least at risk (top to
    bottom of the loneliness scale):

     The highest score for a Local Authority is 2.3 times as big as that of the lowest.

     For Middle Super Output Areas, the highest risk is 4.5 times the lowest.

     For Lower Level Output Areas, the top score is 25 times the lowest score.

     For Output Areas, the highest risk area in England is 82 times greater than the lowest
    risk area.

    So, not only did no-one have the recipe for loneliness, but they did not have the information
    for targeting loneliness at the right area level.

    Where next?
    Validation and trials around England to see if it makes sense to partners and people locally.

    Sense check comparison of “big” and “small data”.

    Work in conjunction with other agencies to pinpoint “hotspots” of loneliness risk and target
    resources accordingly.

    Research queries to: stats@ageuk.org.uk

    Phil Rossall, Jose Iparraguirre and Susan Davidson July 2015

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