Jack Lam

Background and Objectives: The literature indicates an association between social isolation and substance use. Though related, social withdrawal is a construct that has received less attention. Given that prescription drugs are commonly misused by older adults, this paper contributes to the literature by examining the association between social withdrawal and prescription opioid misuse. Research Design and Methods: We use data from 2009 to 2022 U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, focusing on respondents 50+ (N = 111,386; 54.8% female; 74.1% non-Hispanic White). Social withdrawal is measured with 3 items from the WHO Disability Assessment Scale, individually and as a scale, capturing the level of social withdrawal severity experienced when going out of the home, dealing with strangers, and participating in social activities. Our outcome is past-year prescription opioid misuse. Logistic regression models consider the association between these 2 measures. Models account for underlying mental health alongside additional covariates. Results: Levels of social withdrawal and prescription opioid misuse remained relatively constant across observation years. A significant association exists between social withdrawal and past-year prescription opioid misuse. We find increasing odds of past-year prescription opioid misuse across social withdrawal severity levels. Severe social withdrawal across measures is associated with 1.59 (95% CI = 1.28, 1.98) to 2.1 (95% CI = 1.74, 2.48) times higher odds of past-year prescription opioid misuse relative to no social withdrawal. Predicted probabilities of misuse are 1% among those with no social withdrawal, but 6% among those experiencing severe social withdrawal. A nonsignificant interaction shows this relationship is consistent across years. These estimates are robust to numerous controls and alternative specifications. Discussion and Implications: Prescription opioid misuse is associated with social withdrawal. Social withdrawal is bound up with, and yet independent of, mental and physical health. Addressing the social causes of social withdrawal, as well as mental and physical health, could advance addressing opioid misuse among older adults.

Climate-related changes and disasters may disrupt relationships and ties. Drawing on 10 years of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) surveys, we examine the effects of climate-related disasters on loneliness, social support, social functioning, and social contacts with friends and family. By matching respondents who experienced a disaster with a control cohort of similar characteristics before the event, we find being exposed to a climate-related disaster is associated with an increase in loneliness and a decrease in social functioning the year of the event, and up to 2 years afterwards. We also find lower levels of reported social support, with the effect sustained up to 6 years after the event. We further explore whether there may be heterogeneity in the impact, utilising group-based trajectory modelling. We identified three groups that followed distinct trajectories of sociality: a low (19.6%), medium (44.7%), and high social support and connectedness group (35.7%). The low support and connectedness group experienced the most substantial decrease in social support and an increase in loneliness in the year of the event, though followed by gradual recovery over time. Our findings provide further evidence of the heterogeneity in the social impacts of climate change.

Background and Objectives: There is increasing acknowledgment that loneliness is associated with neighborhood characteristics in addition to individual characteristics. We use four waves of geocoded data to examine longitudinal associations between neighborhood characteristics and loneliness of older adults. Research Design and Methods: We draw on “person–environment fit” theory, utilizing individual assessments of neighborhoods, while also creating aggregate assessments by combining responses from other respondents from the same geographic area to test associations with loneliness. Results: Random-effects models demonstrate that both individual and aggregate assessments of neighborhoods are related to loneliness, however, in models that include control variables, the associations between aggregate assessments of neighborhood and loneliness were attenuated. Fixed-effects models show only individual assessments of the neighborhood are associated with variations in loneliness. Discussion and Implications: Consistent with the “person–environment fit” theory, loneliness appears more sensitive to individual assessments of the neighborhood, irrespective of others’ assessments. Our findings point to the subjective nature of loneliness and suggest that measures to reduce loneliness should focus on understanding and addressing individual perceptions of neighborhoods, emphasizing the importance of promoting age-friendly environments.

Despite the growing acknowledgment of the importance of loneliness among older individuals, questionnaire length constraints may hinder the inclusion of common multi-item loneliness scales in surveys. Direct, single-item loneliness measures are a practical alternative, but scholars have expressed concerns that such measures may lead to underreporting. Our aim was to test whether such reservations are justified. We conducted a preregistered list experiment among 2,553 people aged 50 + who participated in the Dutch Longitudinal Internet studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) panel. The list experiment method has been developed to unobtrusively gather sensitive information. We compared the list experiment estimate of the prevalence of frequent loneliness with the corresponding direct question estimate to assess downward bias in the latter. Next to pooled models, we estimated models stratified by gender to assess whether loneliness underreporting differed between women and men. Relying on the direct question, we estimated that 5.9% of respondents frequently felt lonely. Our list experiment indicated that the prevalence of frequent loneliness was 13.1%. Although substantial in magnitude, the difference between both estimates was only marginally significant (Δb: 0.072, 95% CI: − 0.003;0.148, p = .06). No evidence of gender differences was found. Although we cannot be conclusive that loneliness estimates are biased downward when a direct question is used, our results call for caution with direct, single-item measures of loneliness if researchers want to avoid underreporting. Replications are needed to gain more precise insights into the extent to which direct, single-item loneliness measures are prone to downward reporting bias.

Objectives: This study examines how older adults’ (65 years old plus) daily activities shifted in the years around the coronavirus disease (COVID) pandemic. Methods: Using data from American Time Use Survey, this study compares activities across the pre-pandemic (2019 to March 2020), early-pandemic (May to December 2020), and pandemic-normal (2021) periods. Results: In the first year of the pandemic, there was less time spent on average on leisure outside the home, traveling, and with nonhousehold members, and more time alone and at home, compared with before the pandemic. Moving beyond averages, sequence and cluster analyses find 5 similar typologies of days across the three periods, characterized by days predominated by (a) housework, (b) leisure at home, (c) TV, (d) a combination of leisure at home and outside with TV, and (e) paid work. Duration of time across various daily activities differed, however, even for the same clusters. For example, in days predominated by indoor leisure, adults spent 405 min in this activity before the pandemic, 432 min during the early-pandemic period, and 549 min during the pandemic-normal period. We also observed changes in the proportion of older adults in each cluster. Across the pre-pandemic and early-pandemic periods, the proportion of days predominated by leisure at home increased (9.9%–17.9%) whereas the proportion belonging to days predominated by housework decreased (45.7%–17.6%). Discussion: COVID-19 shifted the daily life of older adults, and our findings are consistent with selection, optimization, and compensation theory, documenting that older adult adapted across the first 2 years of the pandemic.

The University of Queensland's institutional repository, UQ eSpace, aims to create global visibility and accessibility of UQ’s scholarly research.

The University of Queensland's institutional repository, UQ eSpace, aims to create global visibility and accessibility of UQ’s scholarly research.