Loneliness among elderly in nursing homes

Elderly is very vulnerable to loneliness and it is a barrier to achieve successful ageing. Prevalence of loneliness among the elderly is increasing as well as other associated factors that make it worse. in addition, loneliness has a negative impact on our quality of life, and mental and physical he...

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Main Authors: Aung, Khin Thandar, Nurumal, Mohd. Said, Wan Bukhari, Wan Nur Syakirah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/57248/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/57248/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/57248/1/Loneliness%20IJCWED2_71.pdf
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spelling iium-572482017-12-15T06:00:07Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/57248/ Loneliness among elderly in nursing homes Aung, Khin Thandar Nurumal, Mohd. Said Wan Bukhari, Wan Nur Syakirah RT Nursing Elderly is very vulnerable to loneliness and it is a barrier to achieve successful ageing. Prevalence of loneliness among the elderly is increasing as well as other associated factors that make it worse. in addition, loneliness has a negative impact on our quality of life, and mental and physical health. Moreover, the assessment and identification of loneliness among the elderly are slightly ignored by the health care providers. There is no specific tool to measure the level of loneliness among elderly in Malaysia health care settings. Moreover, by measuring the loneliness level for elderly will help them and health care providers to demonstrate the positive impact of their work on the way people feel about their relationships and connections. The aim of this study was to explore the level of loneliness among elderly in nursing homes using UCLA loneliness scale.A quantitative crosssectional design conducted in nine nursing homes chosen by a stratified random sampling method in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia.Eighty elderly was involved and self-modified questionnaire for sociodemographic data and UCLA loneliness scale that was used to measure the level of loneliness with internal consistency (coefficient α ranging from 0.89 to 0.94) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.73).The descriptive analysis, such as frequency and percentage and Chi-Square test was analyzed using the (SPSS) version 20. 75% of elderly felt very high loneliness while 25% felt moderately loneliness. These participants were mostly came from age-group 71-80s, female, Chinese, not schooling, already loss spouse and don’t have any jobs currently. About 58.8% suffered illnesses and 62.5% faced physical limitation. However, the overall result indicates that there was no association between socio-demographic factors and level of loneliness, but all elderly experienced loneliness either moderately or very high.Early detection and lonely screening are the first stage of primary prevention for elderly. It is very advisable to apply a simple tool, UCLA Loneliness Scale to measure the level of loneliness. For the health care providers, they can provide the best facilities and health services for elderly in helping to reach good quality of life as well as successful aging along their life journey. 2017-06-08 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/57248/1/Loneliness%20IJCWED2_71.pdf Aung, Khin Thandar and Nurumal, Mohd. Said and Wan Bukhari, Wan Nur Syakirah (2017) Loneliness among elderly in nursing homes. International Journal for Studies on Children, Women, Elderly And Disabled, 2 (June). pp. 72-78. ISSN 0128-309X http://www.ijcwed.com/issue/international-journal-for-studies-on-children-women-elderly-and-disabled-vol-2-june-2017/
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution International Islamic University Malaysia
building IIUM Repository
collection Online Access
language English
topic RT Nursing
spellingShingle RT Nursing
Aung, Khin Thandar
Nurumal, Mohd. Said
Wan Bukhari, Wan Nur Syakirah
Loneliness among elderly in nursing homes
description Elderly is very vulnerable to loneliness and it is a barrier to achieve successful ageing. Prevalence of loneliness among the elderly is increasing as well as other associated factors that make it worse. in addition, loneliness has a negative impact on our quality of life, and mental and physical health. Moreover, the assessment and identification of loneliness among the elderly are slightly ignored by the health care providers. There is no specific tool to measure the level of loneliness among elderly in Malaysia health care settings. Moreover, by measuring the loneliness level for elderly will help them and health care providers to demonstrate the positive impact of their work on the way people feel about their relationships and connections. The aim of this study was to explore the level of loneliness among elderly in nursing homes using UCLA loneliness scale.A quantitative crosssectional design conducted in nine nursing homes chosen by a stratified random sampling method in Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia.Eighty elderly was involved and self-modified questionnaire for sociodemographic data and UCLA loneliness scale that was used to measure the level of loneliness with internal consistency (coefficient α ranging from 0.89 to 0.94) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.73).The descriptive analysis, such as frequency and percentage and Chi-Square test was analyzed using the (SPSS) version 20. 75% of elderly felt very high loneliness while 25% felt moderately loneliness. These participants were mostly came from age-group 71-80s, female, Chinese, not schooling, already loss spouse and don’t have any jobs currently. About 58.8% suffered illnesses and 62.5% faced physical limitation. However, the overall result indicates that there was no association between socio-demographic factors and level of loneliness, but all elderly experienced loneliness either moderately or very high.Early detection and lonely screening are the first stage of primary prevention for elderly. It is very advisable to apply a simple tool, UCLA Loneliness Scale to measure the level of loneliness. For the health care providers, they can provide the best facilities and health services for elderly in helping to reach good quality of life as well as successful aging along their life journey.
format Article
author Aung, Khin Thandar
Nurumal, Mohd. Said
Wan Bukhari, Wan Nur Syakirah
author_facet Aung, Khin Thandar
Nurumal, Mohd. Said
Wan Bukhari, Wan Nur Syakirah
author_sort Aung, Khin Thandar
title Loneliness among elderly in nursing homes
title_short Loneliness among elderly in nursing homes
title_full Loneliness among elderly in nursing homes
title_fullStr Loneliness among elderly in nursing homes
title_full_unstemmed Loneliness among elderly in nursing homes
title_sort loneliness among elderly in nursing homes
publishDate 2017
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/57248/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/57248/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/57248/1/Loneliness%20IJCWED2_71.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T21:20:53Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T21:20:53Z
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