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Loneliness and Emergency and Planned Hospitalizations in a Community Sample of Older Adults
Author(s) -
Molloy Gerard J.,
McGee Hannah M.,
O'Neill Desmond,
Conroy Ronan M.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.02960.x
Subject(s) - loneliness , medicine , confidence interval , odds ratio , emergency department , odds , cross sectional study , multivariate analysis , population , emergency medicine , confounding , gerontology , logistic regression , psychiatry , environmental health , pathology
OBJECTIVES: To examine whether loneliness is independently associated with emergency hospitalization and planned hospital inpatient admissions in a population sample of older adults. DESIGN: Nationally representative cross‐sectional interviews in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. SETTING: Private homes in the community. PARTICIPANTS: Randomly selected older people in the community (aged ≥65, N=2,033). MEASUREMENTS: Emergency hospitalization and planned hospital admissions. RESULTS: Eleven percent of the sample had an emergency hospitalization, and 15% had a planned hospital admission. Forty‐two percent reported being bothered by loneliness. A higher frequency of loneliness was associated with emergency hospitalization only (odds ratio=1.29, 95% confidence interval=1.08–1.55), and this association was independent of a range of potential confounders in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: In this community‐based sample of older adults, greater loneliness was independently associated with emergency hospitalization but not planned inpatient admissions.