Seniors' social relationships may be able to predict their healthcare usage, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers from the Athens-based University of Georgia College of Public Health compared data from the 2008 and 2012 University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study. They looked at survey responses of 3,530 community-dwelling adults, ages 60 or greater, gauged their loneliness and compared it to their rate of physician visits and hospitalizations.
Loneliness was based on how often respondents felt a lack of companionship, left out or isolated. Chronic loneliness was identified in respondents who rated high for loneliness in both 2008 and 2012.
The study showed chronic loneliness increased the number of physician visits made by the patients, but not the number of hospitalizations. Lonely respondents were less likely to report their health as good, very good or excellent and had more depressive symptoms.
"This finding made sense to us," co-author Jayani Jayawardhana, PhD, said in a statement. "You build a relationship with your physician over the years, so a visit to the doctor's office is like seeing a friend. Hospitalizations, on the other hand, require a referral from a doctor, and you don't know who you will see."
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