Background: Loneliness refers to the subjective perception of a mismatch between a person’s social needs and their
actual personal relationships. In this paper, the prevalence of loneliness in the older population was examined based on
current data.
Methods: The German Ageing Survey is an ongoing, population-representative study. A total of 4,261 people 50 years of
age and older were surveyed in 2020/2021 with regard to their experience of loneliness.
Results: Overall, 8.3 % of the population 50 years of age and older feel lonely. The findings showed no differences between
different age groups over 50 years of age, nor are there gender or educational differences.
Conclusions: There was no evidence that older individuals living in private households experience loneliness more
commonly than middle-aged individuals. Data from nursing home residents indicate that there may be a higher risk of
loneliness

Ehrlich, Ulrike

Meyer-Wyk, Frauke

Spuling, Svenja M.

Wurm, Susanne

English

&lt;p&gt;Loneliness refers to the subjective perception of a mismatch between a person's social needs and their actual personal relationships. In this paper, the prevalence of loneliness in the older population was examined based on current data.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Methods: The German Ageing Survey is an ongoing, population-representative study. A total of 4,261 people 50 years of age and older were surveyed in 2020/2021 with regard to their experience of loneliness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Results: Overall, 8.3 % of the population 50 years of age and older feel lonely. The findings showed no differences between different age groups over 50 years of age, nor are there gender or educational differences.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Conclusions: There was no evidence that older individuals living in private households experience loneliness more commonly than middle-aged individuals. Data from nursing home residents indicate that there may be a higher risk of loneliness.&lt;/p&gt

Spuling, Svenja

ZENODO

Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in Germany

Loneliness refers to the subjective perception of a mismatch between a person’s social needs and their actual personal relationships. In this paper, the prevalence of loneliness in the older population was examined based on current data.
Methods: The German Ageing Survey is an ongoing, population-representative study. A total of 4,261 people 50 years of age and older were surveyed in 2020/2021 with regard to their experience of loneliness.
Results: Overall, 8.3 % of the population 50 years of age and older feel lonely. The findings showed no differences between different age groups over 50 years of age, nor are there gender or educational differences.
Conclusions: There was no evidence that older individuals living in private households experience loneliness more commonly than middle-aged individuals. Data from nursing home residents indicate that there may be a higher risk of lonelines

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Journal of Health Monitoring 2023 8(3)Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in GermanyJournal of Health Monitoring49FACT SHEETJournal of Health Monitoring · 2023  8(3) DOI 10.25646/11664 Robert Koch Institute, Berlin Susanne Wurm 1, Ulrike Ehrlich 2,  Frauke Meyer-Wyk 1,3, Svenja M. Spuling 21  University Medicine Greifswald,  Department Prevention Research  and Social Medicine, Germany2  German Centre of Gerontology,  Berlin, Germany3  European Commission, Joint Research  Centre (JRC), Ispra, ItalySubmitted: 24.03.2023 Accepted: 12.05.2023 Published: 20.09.2023Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in GermanyAbstractBackground: Loneliness refers to the subjective perception of a mismatch between a person’s social needs and their actual personal relationships. In this paper, the prevalence of loneliness in the older population was examined based on current data. Methods: The German Ageing Survey is an ongoing, population-representative study. A total of 4,261 people 50 years of age and older were surveyed in 2020/2021 with regard to their experience of loneliness.Results: Overall, 8.3 % of the population 50 years of age and older feel lonely. The findings showed no differences between different age groups over 50 years of age, nor are there gender or educational differences. Conclusions: There was no evidence that older individuals living in private households experience loneliness more commonly than middle-aged individuals. Data from nursing home residents indicate that there may be a higher risk of loneliness.  LONELINESS · SOCIAL NETWORK · SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS · GERMAN AGEING SURVEY 2020/2021 · AGING · GERMANYIntroductionLoneliness describes the perceived gap between a person’s social needs and their actual personal relationships, both in terms of quantity and quality of the relationships [1]. Loneliness is a subjective feeling. Therefore, people can feel lonely despite having a large social network and, con-versely, objectively socially isolated people do not neces-sarily feel lonely [2].Loneliness is associated with a health risk. Several stud-ies have shown associations between loneliness and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s dementia [2, 3]. In addition, loneliness is associated with increased use of physicians and a higher likelihood of premature death (e.g. [2, 4]).Previous findings on the risk of loneliness in different population groups indicated that the probability of feeling lonely does not increase across age groups. According to results of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) as well as an international meta-analysis, the risk of loneliness at an older age is not higher than in the middle of adulthood [5–8]. Studies on the very-old population in Germany com-plement the findings of the DEAS. They show for the group of 80-year-olds and older that about every 17th to 20th per-son (5–6 %) is lonely at this age [9, 10]. These findings also demonstrate that loneliness is not more widespread among old-age people than among younger age groups. Differ-ences in the figures on the prevalence of loneliness are partly due to the fact that loneliness was measured differ-Journal of Health Monitoring 2023 8(3)Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in GermanyJournal of Health Monitoring50FACT SHEETently depending on the study, and people living in nursing homes were sometimes not surveyed. While social net-works are often smaller at an older age than in younger age groups [11], loneliness is not more prevalent. Some studies indicated that women and men do not differ in their risk of loneliness starting from middle adulthood and onwards [5], while among children, adolescents and young adults, slightly higher loneliness risks are detected among boys and men [12]. There are also varying and sometimes contradictory results with regard to the educational status. For example, around 7 % of highly educated people reported feeling lonely in the DEAS compared to almost 15 % of those with low levels of education [5].Based on nationally representative data from the DEAS, the present study examined the current prevalence of lone-liness among women and men, in various age and educa-tion groups among the population 50 years of age and older. In addition, the study investigated how the rate of people being at risk of loneliness has changed compared to the pre-pandemic period.IndicatorThe loneliness rate in the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) 2020/2021 is captured on the basis of an indicator through the self-reports of the respondents in a questionnaire that was completed in written form or online. The DEAS is a nationwide representative cross-sectional and longitudinal survey of people who are in the second half of life and are thus at least 40 years of age. The first survey took place in 1996, and six follow-ups have taken place since then. In the 2020/2021 survey year, 5,402 people between the ages of 46 and 100 participated in the oral interview; 4,419 of these respondents (82 %) also completed the additional questionnaire. The internationally established loneliness measure (LONE scale [1]) used in the questionnaire, which is based on a total of six statements, contains statements such as ‘I miss having people around among whom I feel comfortable’ or ‘I miss emotional security and warmth’. Affirmation of these statements can be expressed on a scale from 1 ‘strongly disagree’ to 4 ‘strongly agree’. People are classified as lonely if their individual scale mean was greater than 2.5 in the possible value range from 1 to 4. Respon-dents with missing data were excluded (21 respondents: 11 women, 10 men). In addition, respondents who were younger than 50 years of age (106 respondents: 56 women, 50 men) or older than 90 years of age were excluded (31 respondents: 11 women, 20 men). The final analytical sam-ple consisted of 4,261 respondents between 50 and 90 years of age (2,179 women, 2,082 men). The 1997 International Standard Classification of Edu-cation (ISCED) was used to classify respondents’ educa-tional and vocational qualifications [13]. Weighted preva-lences as percentages with 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) were presented on loneliness stratified by gen-der, age and education using methodology that takes into account the stratified sampling of the DEAS. Descriptive results with the respective confidence intervals are pre-sented in tabular form. In addition, a significance test was conducted to test for differences between the groups. A detailed description of the DEAS methodology is pre-sented elsewhere [14, 15]. Journal of Health Monitoring 2023 8(3)Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in GermanyJournal of Health Monitoring51FACT SHEETadditional increase in loneliness among older adults [8, 16, 17]. Additional analyses based on the DEAS demon-strated that, as early as in the winter of 2020/2021, the loneliness rate had declined to a level comparable to 2017. The widespread notion that older people in particular are subject to loneliness is therefore not corroborated on the basis of the present results. It should be noted that the DEAS does not survey people living in nursing homes. A survey of around 1,000 people 80 years of age and older who live in a nursing home in Germany showed that more than one in three people feels lonely (35 %) and thus the proportion of lonely people in nursing homes is signifi-cantly higher than in the general population [18]. More over, living alone should not be mixed up with feeling lonely. The rate of people living alone among the people over 85 years of age is 63 %, which is about the same level as among the under 25-year-olds [19]. An explanation for the finding that old age is not per se correlated to higher rates of loneliness is provided by the so-called socioemotional selectivity theory [20]. According to this theory, social needs change with age, so that a smaller number of close relationships is perceived as emo-tionally satisfactory in old age.Corresponding authorProf Dr Susanne WurmUniversity Medicine Greifswald Department Prevention Research and Social MedicineInstitute for Community Medicine Walther-Rathenau-Str. 48 17475 Greifswald, GermanyE-mail: susanne.wurm@med.uni-greifswald.deResults and conclusionA total of 7.8 % of women and 8.8 % of men in Germany reported feeling lonely in 2020/2021. There was no statis-tically significant difference between the loneliness rates of women and men. The proportion of women and men who were classified as being lonely was thus at a compa-rable level (Table 1). Moreover, there was no age-associat-ed trend among the respondents, as there are no statisti-cally significant differences between the age groups. Thus, the loneliness rates were at a comparable level in all age groups. Furthermore, the loneliness rate also did not show a statistically significant difference between different groups of education (Table 1).The results show that loneliness does not vary between the age groups considered. In contrast, data from a com-prehensive UK study indicate that the prevalence of lone-liness may be higher among young adults than among older adults [16]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, loneli-ness increased in the general population, but there was no Table 1 Loneliness rate by gender, age and education (n = 2,179 women, n = 2,082 men)Source: German Ageing Survey (2020/2021)8.3% of the population  50 years of age and older reported feeling lonely  in 2020/2021.% (95 % CI)Total (women and men) 8.3 (6.5 – 10.5)GenderFemale 7.8 (5.5 – 11.0)Male 8.8 (6.3 – 12.1)Age group50 – 64 years 9.6 (6.7 – 13.2)65 – 74 years 6.1 (4.2 – 8.9)≥ 75 years 7.6 (4.4 – 12.9)Education groupLow/medium 8.2 (6.1 – 10.9)High 8.5 (5.8 – 12.5)CI = confidence intervalJournal of Health Monitoring 2023 8(3)Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in GermanyJournal of Health Monitoring52FACT SHEETFundingThe German Ageing Survey (DEAS) is funded by the Fed-eral Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ).Conflicts of interestThe authors declared no conflicts of interest.References1. De Jong Gierveld J, Tilburg TV (2006) A 6-item scale for overall, emotional, and social loneliness – Confirmatory tests on survey data. Res Aging 28(5):582–5982. Hawkley LC, Cacioppo JT (2010) Loneliness Matters: A Theoretical and Empirical Review of Consequences and Mechanisms.  Ann Behav Med 40(2):218–2273. Park C, Majeed A, Gill H et al. (2020) The Effect of Loneliness  on Distinct Health Outcomes: A Comprehensive Review and Meta-Analysis. Psychiat Res 294:113514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113514 (As at 28.06.2023)4. Gerst-Emerson K, Jayawardhana J (2015) Loneliness as a Public Health Issue: The Impact of Loneliness on Health Care Utilization Among Older Adults. Am J Public Health 105(5):1013–10195. Böger A, Wetzel M, Huxhold O (2017) Allein unter vielen oder zusammen ausgeschlossen: Einsamkeit und wahrgenommene soziale Exklusion in der zweiten Lebenshälfte. In: Mahne K, Wolff J, Simonson J et al. (Eds) Altern im Wandel Zwei Jahrzehnte Deut-scher Alterssurvey (DEAS). Springer VS, Wiesbaden, P. 273–2856. Huxhold O, Engstler H, Hoffmann E (2019) Entwicklung der Ein-samkeit bei Menschen im Alter von 45 bis 84 Jahren im Zeitraum von 2008 bis 2017. (DZA-Fact Sheet) Berlin: Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-62853-2  (As at 07.06.2023)7. Mund M, Freuding MM, Möbius K et al. (2020) The Stability and Change of Loneliness Across the Life Span: A Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 24(1):24–528. Wünsche J, Tesch-Römer C (2022) Wie viele Menschen in der zweiten Lebenshälfte sind in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland von Einsamkeit betroffen? (DZA-Fact Sheet) Berlin: Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-83599-5  (As at 07.06.2023) Please cite this publication asWurm S, Ehrlich U, Meyer-Wyk F, Spuling SM (2023) Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in Germany. J Health Monit 8(3): 49–54. DOI 10.25646/11664The German version of the article is available at: www.rki.de/jhealthmonitData protection and ethicsParticipants in the DEAS study provided their informed consent after they were invited and received detailed writ-ten information about the aims and procedures of the study. Informed consent covered the voluntary nature of partici-pation, the assurance of data protection and the use of the data gathered exclusively for scientific purposes. An ethics vote was not necessary for the DEAS and was therefore not requested (see the DFG’s comments on the necessity of an ethics vote for studies in the humanities and social sciences [21]; none of the criteria for the necessity of an ethics vote – risks for participants, lack of information about the aims of the study, examination of patients – are evident in the DEAS).Data availabilityThe anonymised and processed data of all completed waves of the German Ageing Survey (DEAS) are available free of charge to the scientific community via the Research Data Centre of the German Centre of Gerontology (FDZ-DZA) as Scientific Use Files (https://www.dza.de/en/research/fdz/german-ageing-survey). For data protection reasons, a user contract must be concluded in order to obtain and analyze the data.Loneliness rates were at comparable levels for women and men 50 years of age and older. 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Huxhold O, Tesch-Römer C (2021) Einsamkeit steigt in der Corona- Pandemie bei Menschen im mittleren und hohen Erwachsenen-alter gleichermaßen deutlich. DZA Aktuell, 04:1–1618. Kaspar R, Wenner J, Tesch-Römer C (2022) Einsamkeit in der Hochaltrigkeit. Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend; Universität zu Köln, Cologne Center for Ethics, Rights, Economics, and Social Sciences of Health (ceres);  Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-77004-2  (As at 07.06.2023)19. Statistisches Bundesamt (2022) Haushalte und Familien –  Ergebnisse aus dem Mikrozensus: Alleinlebende und Personen in Paargemeinschaften nach Alter und Geschlecht in Deutsch-land im Jahr 2020. Sonderauswertung, 23.3.2022. WiesbadenJournal of Health Monitoring 2023 8(3)Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in GermanyJournal of Health Monitoring54FACT SHEETThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.The Robert Koch Institute is a Federal Institute within  the portfolio of the German Federal Ministry of HealthImprint Journal of Health Monitoringwww.rki.de/jhealthmonit-enPublisherRobert Koch InstituteNordufer 20 13353 Berlin, GermanyEditorial OfficeDepartment of Epidemiology and Health MonitoringUnit: Health ReportingGeneral-Pape-Str. 62–6612101 Berlin, GermanyPhone: +49 (0)30-18 754-3400E-mail: healthmonitoring@rki.deEditor-in-ChiefDr Thomas Ziese, Deputy: Dr Anke-Christine SaßEditorsJohanna Gutsche, Dr Birte Hintzpeter, Dr Livia Ryl, Simone StimmTypesettingKatharina Behrendt, Alexander Krönke, Kerstin MöllerkeTranslation intellitext SprachenServiceISSN 2511-2708NoteExternal contributions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the  Robert Koch Institute.

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Prevalence of loneliness among older adults in Germany

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