Purpose: To operationally divide social isolation into four categories and examine the factors associated with social isolation and its relationship with loneliness and life satisfaction.
Methods: The participants were community-dwelling older adults aged ≥ 60 years who underwent functional health examinations in Chita City, Aichi, Japan. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the associations between social isolation, loneliness, and life satisfaction.
Results: A total of 5,066 participants (mean age 72.0 ± ± 6.3 years, female: 55.4 %) were included in the study. Multiple regression analysis showed that the number of experiences of social isolation, classified into four categories, was positively correlated with loneliness (β = 0.188, ΔR2 = 0.244, p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with life satisfaction (β = -0.076, ΔR2 = -0.178, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Multiple experiences of social isolation classified into four categories were found to be associated with higher loneliness and lower life satisfaction.
Keywords: Life satisfaction; Loneliness; Older adults; Social isolation.
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