Loneliness, Fear of Falling, and Quality of Life in Community-Dwelling Older Women Who Live Alone and Live With Others Publisher



Zali M¹ ; Farhadi A² ; Soleimanifar M³ ; Allameh H⁴ ; Janani L⁵
Source: Educational Gerontology Published:2017

Abstract

Background: One of the health indexes is living arrangement and nowadays has tended toward living alone which has terrible negative impacts on the elderly’s social health in Asia. About 62.2% of lonely older adults are afraid of falling. In addition, the activity level of them is much more limited. Aim: The aim of this article is to compare loneliness, fear of falling, and quality of life in older women who live alone and live with others. Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 218 accessible elderly women (116 live alone, 102 live with others) to compare loneliness, fear of falling, and quality of life by using the Farsi versions of UCLA-LS, falls efficacy scale-international (FES-I), and SF12 questionnaires, respectively. Results: Linear regression was used to compare the means of continuous outcomes between the two groups by adjustment on probable confounder’s age and falling history. Conclusion: Fears of falling and physical aspect of life quality in the lonely older adults were considerably higher than other group. © 2017 Taylor & Francis.