Mortality of older persons living alone: Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Studies

BMC Geriatrics

Research Article

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

[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 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, 119228, Singapore, Singapore;National Registry of Diseases Office (NRDO), Health Promotion Board, Singapore, Singapore;

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

DOI  :  10.1186/s12877-015-0128-7

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

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundWe 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.MethodUsing 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.ResultsAt 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).ConclusionLiving 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】

CC BY   
© Ng et al. 2015