We can communicate with friends and family members across the country and around the globe with a few clicks of a mouse or taps on a phone. Despite these advances in technology and the increasing connectedness they bring, research indicates that we are lonelier than we have ever been, and no other age group faces loneliness more than the elderly.
Aging and Shrinking Social Circles
Age brings many changes that contribute to a more solitary life. One of the biggest for seniors is that their social circles begin to shrink. Friends, significant others and family members move away or pass away, and those who live close by may be inaccessible due to limited mobility. Age-related changes, such as hearing loss and low vision, can also make it so difficult to communicate that some seniors feel it’s no longer worth the effort.
Embarrassment can be a factor as well. Many older adults face logistical obstacles when it comes to leaving the house that make them self-conscious about using a walker or other mobility device, being incontinent, or using oxygen.
When one’s peer group has any combination of these factors, it is difficult if not impossible to get together or keep in touch regularly. The result is a decline in the number and quality of relationships among the aging.
Even when a senior is being taken care of by family caregivers, there is often little attention paid to deep, engaging communication between a senior and the rest of the family, according to T. Byram Karasu, MD, from the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Caregivers are usually so worn out from juggling their day-to-day responsibilities that they have little time or energy left for truly meeting a senior’s emotional and social needs. This is especially true for family units that have spread across the country and have difficulty making time for visits and even regular communication by phone and mail.
Increased Decline in Physical Health
In addition to the damaging mental effects of feeling that one lacks fulfilling personal relationships, feeling lonely can take a toll on one’s physical health. A University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) study found that participants aged 60 years or older who reported feeling lonely had a 45 percent increase in their risk of death. Survey respondents who felt isolated also had a 59 percent greater risk of mental and physical decline than their more social counterparts. This decline manifested specifically in participants’ abilities to perform activities of daily living that are necessary for truly independent living. In other words, loneliness has the potential to accelerate a senior’s need for assistance from a family caregiver or another source of long-term care.
Loneliness is thought to act on the body in a way that is similar to chronic stress. It raises the body’s levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, which impairs immune responses and contributes to inflammation, mental illness, heart disease and diabetes. Another study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry found that loneliness may be associated with the development of brain biomarkers associated with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.
Lastly, psychologists from the University of Chicago analyzed data from an ongoing multi-generational cardiovascular study that began in 1948 and discovered another remarkable characteristic of loneliness: It is contagious. Older adults who feel lonesome are more prone to behave in ways that may cause other people to not want to be around them. Researchers found that solitary seniors have a tendency to further isolate themselves by pushing people away and not making efforts to engage with others. Furthermore, the few people that lonely seniors interact with are likely to become lonely themselves and follow the same path to the outskirts of their social networks. This has serious implications on the health and social lives of family members who are caring for lonely seniors.
The Value of Listening and Sharing
Experts in the field suggest ways to help alleviate loneliness for the elderly include: listen to what they have to say; encourage them to get involved in activities they love; ask them to share their knowledge by showing you how to do something they love, such as knitting or playing the piano; find ways to get grandchildren involved, in person or electronically; get other family members to connect with them even for short periods; or consider moving them to a facility where there are more opportunities to socialize.
This article was adapted from “Combatting the Epidemic of Loneliness in Seniors,” written by Ann-Marie Botek for AgingCare.com