老年人孤独感及其影响因素的潜在转变分析 <sup>*</sup>
摘要
<p id="C3">The high prevalence of loneliness and various accompanying adverse consequences (e.g., depression, higher blood pressure, insomnia, immune stress responses and worse cognition) are becoming serious public concerns. To provide insights on prevention and intervention programs, this study examines the properties and development of loneliness behaviors in elderly people. Taking a longitudinal perspective enables researchers to understand who is expected to transition to a higher risk status in the future, which will help to predict symptoms so that tailored interventions can be designed to protect the elderly from loneliness.<br/>Two-wave longitudinal data over 4 years were derived from the American Health and Retirement Study (HRS). A total of 3238 women and 2205 men in their 50s were recruited. Latent class and latent transition models were used to identify meaningful subgroups of the elderly with different symptoms (i.e., lack of companionship, being left out, isolation from others, lack of belonging, and withdrawn from society) to describe transitions between those classes over the study period and to examine the effects of covariates on the latent transition model. Six covariates, including gender, marital status, attitudes toward aging, life orientation, social support and daily activities, were examined as potential predictors of loneliness.<br/>Four loneliness subgroups were identified: <italic>Mild Loneliness</italic> (Class 1), <italic>Social Loneliness</italic> (Class 2), <italic>Emotional Loneliness</italic> (Class 3), and <italic>Severe Loneliness</italic> (Class 4). <italic>Mild Loneliness</italic> status was the most prevalent, barely showing any lonely behavior, while relatively serious loneliness occurred in <italic>Social Loneliness</italic>, <italic>Emotional Loneliness</italic> and <italic>Severe Loneliness</italic>. Specifically, individuals in <italic>Social Loneliness</italic> lacked social intercourse relation, individuals in <italic>E