Social
Who is lonelier? An Age-Period-Cohort and Generational Analysis Rosanne Freak-Poli* Rosanne Freak-Poli Haoxiong Sun Trong-Anh Trinh
When taking office, Surgeon General Murthy heard “if I disappear tomorrow, no one will even notice” repeatedly. Murthy has declared loneliness in America an “epidemic,” identifying it as a root cause contributing significantly to numerous social issues. Unfortunately, the USA is not alone, with the World Health Organization also declaring loneliness a ‘global public health concern’.
Aim
To investigate patterns of loneliness and social isolation across age, period, cohort and generations in a nationally representative longitudinal cohort.
Methods
We use 19 annual waves of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, incorporating 337,630 participants aged 15 years and older between 2001 and 2022. Age-Period-Cohort and generational differences in loneliness (≥5/7 for “I often feel very lonely”) and social isolation (meeting friends/relatives outside household ≤2-3 times monthly and being single) were analyzed using logistic regression with p<0.05.
Results
Women reported greater loneliness (mean±SD 13%±34 vs 11%±31) and lower social isolation than men (28%±45 vs 29%±45). AGE: Loneliness was greatest among older adults (>18% prevalence) but also high for women aged 15-20 years. Social isolation was greatest for ages 40-60 years (>40%), and for men these high rates continued into later life. PERIOD: Loneliness prevalence decreased from 2001 (13.5%) to 2009 (10.5%), and then increased by 2022 (13.8%). Social isolation steadily increased across the observation period from 24.5% to 35%. Patterns were similar across binary gender. COHORT: More recent birth cohorts report less loneliness and less social isolation, which were consistent across genders. GENERATION: Generational and gender differences in loneliness and social isolation were observed across age groups (Figure).
Discussion
The high rates of loneliness and social isolation are concerning, especially social isolation which is increasing over time with no plateau observed.
