Governments across Australia and around the world are recognising that loneliness is an escalating public health issue, one with substantial social and economic ramifications.
Earlier this month, the NSW government announced a Parliamentary Inquiry into the prevalence, causes and impacts of loneliness. The inquiry is set to hold public hearings in November.
Since 2020, the Sax Institute’s 45 and Up Study has surveyed more than 70,000 older Australians on loneliness. These surveys show that 83% have experienced loneliness to some degree, and that 12% have been intensely lonely at least once during that time.
“Loneliness is a serious issue for many Australians, and the 45 and Up Study can help unravel the impact over time as well as protective factors that support people experiencing loneliness,” Sax Institute CEO Dr Martin McNamara says. “The impact of loneliness extends beyond emotional distress, with links to poor physical and mental health and premature death.”
Key insights from 70,000 people
The 45 and Up Study is Australia’s largest ongoing study into healthy ageing, following more than 250,000 people aged 45 and older since 2005. All participants lived in NSW when they joined the Study.
In 2020, the Study began asking participants about loneliness. Five surveys have been conducted between 2020 and 2023, with responses collected from a total of 73,311 participants aged 55 and older.
Almost one-third of participants reported being lonely to some degree more than once over this period, which was marked by several lockdowns and social restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the surveys did show an improvement over time in the number of people unaffected by loneliness. The proportion of people who reported no experience of loneliness increased from 20% in 2020 to 36% in 2023.
What has remained almost constant is the proportion of people experiencing intense loneliness, with 10% of all participants reporting intense loneliness in 2020 and 8% reporting it in 2023.
The surveys also shed light on specific groups of the population that experience intense loneliness. Those needing help with a disability had a significantly higher proportion experiencing intense loneliness than the total population in both 2020 (18.5%) and 2023 (19%).
People who were single or separated also reported higher rates of intense loneliness, which was 17% in 2020 and 2023. People living alone were also affected but to a lesser degree – in 2020, 14% of people living alone reported being intensely lonely, and in 2023 the proportion was similar at 13%. For people living with others, 8% were intensely lonely in both 2020 and 2023.
Other groups reporting higher-than-average periods of intense loneliness across the five surveys were those aged 55-64, people in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and people identifying as LGBTIQ+.
Along with providing these insights into prevalence of loneliness and its intensity, the 45 and Up Study has the potential to answer complex questions about its occurrence and impacts, says Dr McNamara. “The 45 and Up Study is linked to a large range of datasets covering medical care, prescription medications, cancer registries and more. These datasets can help answer questions about the relationship between loneliness and health and wellbeing.”
The 45 and Up Study uses the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale, which uses a series of questions to calculate an overall loneliness ‘score’ between 0 and 6. A score of 0 is ‘not lonely’, a score between 1 and 4 is ‘very low to moderately lonely’, and a score of 5 or 6 is ‘intensely lonely’. Loneliness is defined as when person experiences distress from greater levels of social disconnection than they desire.
These questions have been included in five different surveys held between 2020 and 2023. The number of participants in each survey ranged from 16,000 to 43,000 people. More than 120,000 surveys were completed overall.
Participants in the 45 and Up Study have consented to have their survey responses linked to datasets including Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), hospital administrative data, cancer registries, immunisation data (AIR) and mortality data.
To find out more about working with the 45 and Up Study, contact 45andUp.Research@saxinstitute.org.au
