The silent epidemic: exploring the link between loneliness and chronic diseases in China’s elderly

作者：Ling‐bing Meng, Ruofan Xu, Jianyi Li, Jiabin Hu, Hongxuan Xu, Dishan Wu, Xing Hu, Xuezhai Zeng, Qiuxia Zhang, Juan Li, Deping Liu · 发表于：BMC Geriatrics · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1186/s12877-024-05163-2 · 被引用次数：24 · 研究领域：Health disparities and outcomes、Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving、Chronic Disease Management Strategies

BACKGROUND: Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, are the leading causes of death and disability. Loneliness is linked to a greater risk of chronic disease. However, the lack of loneliness may change this relationship. METHODS: The 4th Survey of the Aged Population in Urban and Rural China (SSAPUR) was performed. 222,179 people over 60 years old were recruited. Chronic disease was defined by self-reported tumble incidents using the fourth SSAPUR questionnaire. We found that the residuals were well normally distributed. Subsequently, we analyzed the association between each studied factor and chronic disease by univariate logistic regression analysis. Finally, we stratified the population by age, gender, and urban and rural. RESULTS: 77,448 individuals experienced loneliness, while 137,593 did not. Loneliness correlated significantly with urban-rural classification, age, and gender (P < 0.001). There was a significant association between chronic diseases and loneliness (P < 0.05). Compared to lonely individuals, those with low level of loneliness had a lower incidence of gastric diseases (OR = 0.752, 95% CI, 0.736-0.769, P < 0.001), osteoarthritis (OR = 0.685, 95% CI, 0.673-0.697, P < 0.001), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (OR = 0.678, 95% CI, 0.659-0.698, P < 0.001), asthma (OR = 0.608, 95% CI, 0.583-0.633, P < 0.001), malignant tumors (OR = 0.892, 95% CI, 0.822-0.968, P = 0.006), and reproductive system diseases (OR = 0.871, 95% CI, 0.8...