Loneliness among older people - a literature review

Loneliness among older people is an area that has been studied in detail by researchers from a number of disciplines. A generally held view seems to be that as a person gets older, their social network decreases, their health deteriorates and, as a consequence, they can feel lonely. It appears that it is external factors that make the older person feel lonely, not internal existential factors. Loneliness may not only be related to the social factors affecting the older person, but also possibly to the person’s ability to be both alone and with others.

The project analyses published scientific studies on loneliness in older people from a variety of disciplines. A large number of studies have been found through database searches and the project group is working on a review of these. The purpose of the project is to study the basic assumptions made in these existing studies about loneliness in older persons in order to define and clarify a meta-field in the research on loneliness in older people.