Mortality of older persons living alone: Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Studies

BMC Geriatrics

Ngan Phoon Fong¹  Lei Feng¹  Khuan Yew Chow³  Ma Shwe Zin Nyunt¹  Liang Feng¹  Aizhen Jin³  Tze Pin Ng² 

[1] Department of Psychological Medicine, Gerontology Research Programme, National University Health System, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore;Department of Psychological Medicine, Gerontology Research Programme, National University of Singapore, NUHS Tower Block, 9th Floor, 1E Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119228, Singapore;National Registry of Diseases Office (NRDO), Health Promotion Board, Singapore, Singapore

关键词: Mortality;    Health status;    Living alone;    Ageing;   

Others  :  1231970
DOI  :  10.1186/s12877-015-0128-7

 received in 2015-03-30, accepted in 2015-10-12,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

We investigated the association of living alone with mortality among older persons, independently of marital, health and other factors, and explored its effect modification by age group, sex, marital status and physical functional disability.

Method

Using data from 8 years of mortality follow up (1 September 2003 to 31 December 2011) of 2553 participants in the Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Studies (SLAS) cohort, we estimated hazard ratio (HR) of mortality associated with living alone using Cox proportional hazard models.

Results

At baseline, 7.4 % (N = 189) of the participants were living alone, and 227 (8.9 %) died during the follow up period. Living alone was significantly associated with mortality 1.66 (95 % CI, 1.05–2.63), controlling for health status (hypertension, diabetes, chronic lung disease, stroke, heart disease, kidney failure, IADL–ADL disability and depressive symptoms), marital status and other variables (age, sex, housing type). Possible substantive effect modification by sex (p for interaction = 0.106) and marital status (p for interaction <0.115) were observed: higher among men (HR = 2.36, 95 % CI, 1.24–4.49) than women (HR = 1.14, 95 % CI, 0.58–2.22), and among single, divorce or widowed (HR = 2.26, 95 % CI, 1.24–4.10) than married individuals (HR = 0.83, 95 % CI, 0.30–2.31).

Conclusion

Living alone was associated with increased mortality, independently of marital, health and other variables. The impact of living alone on mortality appeared to be stronger among men and those who were single, divorced or married.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Ng et al.

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