Psychological Health Problems among Elderly People in Relation to Loneliness

Abstract

Many studies have indicated that loneliness is positively correlated with health problems. Beside some demographical characteristic are also said to be associated with it.
Loneliness has been linked to depression, anxiety and interpersonal hostility and also increased vulnerability to health problems and even to suicide. Feeling of loneliness is related with an increased risk of poor mental health and suicide among those aged 65 to 97
years. But its effect on psychological health among elderly people is relatively less explored. Present study aimed to examine the role of loneliness in psychological health among
elderly people and its influencing factors. The co relational research design was used for
this study. In all, 164 elderly people (male and female both) participated in the present
study. The participants were taken from different old age home and family residence at
Varanasi and native places. The participants were administered the General Health Questionnaire and Loneliness Scale. Correlation analysis was applied to see the relationship
which revealed that loneliness was positively associated with psychological health problems via: anxiety (.199, pis lessthan.01), depression (.221, pis less than.01), somatic complains (.259, pis lelss than.01) and social dysfunction (.222, pis less than.01). Apart from that, they obtained data also revealed significant differences among male and female on the entire dimension of GHQ-28 and loneliness.