Nobody Knows Me Here: Loneliness Among Older African Immigrants

International Health Trends and Perspectives

Introduction: Older immigrants face several factors that increase their feeling of loneliness. Identifying determinants of loneliness is essential for designing relevant interventions that address to mitigate loneliness. Objective: This scoping review aimed to generate a list of factors and map those that are associated with older immigrants’ experience of loneliness. Methods: Arksey and O’Malley’s revised framework informed this scoping review. Various databases were searched to locate quantitative studies that were published in English between 2000 and 2023 that examined determinants of loneliness in older immigrants. In total, 23 studies were included. Extracted data (related to study characteristics, and results pertaining to the association of determinants with loneliness) were summarized using the vote counting method. Results: The results indicated that older immigrants experienced high levels of loneliness, which were associated with poor general and mental health. In additi...

2020

This paper examined loneliness, as a measurement of perceived social isolation, in older immigrant adults. Previous research shows that older adults are more likely to experience social isolation and loneliness. Both of which have a direct correlation with their overall health (Wilson & Molton, 2010, Cacioppo et al., 2002) and mortality rates (Holt-Lunstad et al, 2015). Another international study found that immigrants in particular are at a higher risk for experiencing loneliness (Government of Canada, 2018). In this study, 35 immigrants and non-immigrants participants answered a survey which included 20 questions from the UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 (Russel, 1996). Participants were residents of the San Francisco Bay area and ranged in age from under 45 years to over 76 years. Results were non-statistically significant. While the results did not support the study hypotheses, they suggested that older immigrant adults who migrated over the age of 18 feel more lonely than other ...

European Journal of Ageing, 2021

Nursing Ethics, 2021

Background: With rapidly ageing population worldwide, loneliness among older adults is becoming a global issue. Older migrants are considered being a vulnerable population and ethical issues are often raised in care for elderly. A deeper sense of loneliness, existential loneliness is one aspect of loneliness also described as the ultimate loneliness. Making oneself understood or expressing emotions, have shown to be particularly challenging for older migrants which could lead to experience of existential loneliness. Ageing and being a migrant are potential triggers for experiencing existential loneliness. There appears to be, however, little known about being a migrant experiencing existential loneliness in old age. Aim: This study explored older migrants’ experience of existential loneliness. Research design: Qualitative study. Participants and research context: Data were collected through interviews (n = 15) with older (>65) migrants’ in Swedish nursing homes or senior citizen ...

Comprehensive Psychiatry, 2004

Loneliness has been recognized as a public health problem that requires the attention of clinicians and researchers both as a condition in itself and in its relation to other conditions. This study sought to examine the relationship between self-reported loneliness, psychological distress, and social support among immigrants. A community survey of 386 recent immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union was conducted using the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (R-UCLA-LS), Talbieh Brief Distress Inventory (TBDI), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). A cross-sectional design, and correlation and factor analyses were used to study the relationship between the studied variables. The distress-related and distress-free patterns of loneliness were distinguished as independent constructs, each with a specific sphere of influence. Distress-related loneliness accounted for 56.3% and distress-free for 18.2% of the total variance in individual loneliness scores. Distress-related loneliness is a generalized negative experience embedded in an array of distress symptoms, while distress-free loneliness appears to be a normal psychological reaction to dissatisfaction with current friend support. An important implication of this study in mental health practice is the sensitivity to these differences when treating recent immigrants.

European Journal of Ageing

We investigated the prevalence of loneliness among 1206 adults aged 40 + from six minority communities in England and Wales: Black Caribbean, Black African, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese. Replicating the approach from the previous studies, we demonstrate robust acceptability, reliability and validity for both the six-item De Jong Gierveld (DJG) and single-item loneliness scales in our six ethnic groups. The prevalence of loneliness using a single-item question (loneliness reported as often/always) ranges from 5% (Indian) to 14% (Chinese) compared with approximately 5% for the general population aged 40 + in Britain. Levels of loneliness are very much higher using the DJG scale. Using a loneliness threshold score of 5 +, the percentage ranged from 13% (Indian) to 36% (Chinese). We explored the importance of six established loneliness vulnerability factors for our sample using regression modelling. Three factors were not associated with loneliness—number of children, gend...

This article describes life conditions of elderly people in a rural community of Ghana. It deals with the paradoxical situation of elderly people who are still engaged in social activities and yet experience loneliness. It is argued that in spite of the respect given to them, elderly people are denied what they regard as the most valuable proof of respect and companionship: listening to their wisdom and advice. Their loss of that ultimate respect constitutes an experience of loneliness. The article is part of broader anthropological study on social and cultural meanings of growing old in a rural Ghanaian community.

Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 2012

Loneliness, which describes the deficit between an individuals' expectation of the quality and/or quantity of social relationships and the actuality, is associated with poor quality of life, negative health outcomes and, in some cases, increased use of statutory services. Within Great Britain few studies have examined the prevalence of loneliness amongst older people from ethnic minorities. In this exploratory study we consider the prevalence of loneliness amongst older people, those aged 65 years and over, from the key minority groups growing old in Britain (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, African Caribbean, and Chinese) and draw explicit comparisons for these groups with the prevalence of loneliness reported for the general population and with older people in their countries of origin. We use two data sources: the Ethnicity and Loneliness Survey, a study of 300 minority elders aged 65+ living in the community, provides our prevalence estimates and secondary analysis of a study of 169 South Asian elders (aged 65+) undertaken in Birmingham to validate our prevalence rates for the Indian and Bangladeshi populations. We identified very high rates of reported loneliness, ranging from 24% to 50% amongst for those elders originating from China, Africa, the Caribbean, Pakistan and Bangladesh whilst those from India approximated to the norms of 8-10% for Britain. These results suggest that it is feasible to research loneliness amongst minority communities in Britain; that the levels of loneliness are, with the exception of the Indian population, very much higher than for the general population but are broadly comparable with rates of loneliness reported for older people in their countries of origin. There is a rich research agenda to be developed in extending our understanding of loneliness in later life amongst the increasingly culturally and ethnically diverse older population of Great Britain.

Social Science Protocols, 2021

Background: Loneliness is a public and social issue affecting older adults, but in varying degrees across ethnic groups. Black older adults (BOAs) are more prone to loneliness because they have unique and accumulated factors (e.g., low socioeconomic status, high number of chronic conditions) that predispose them to loneliness. This review aims to describe the extent and the nature of research activities on loneliness and identify the contributory factors to loneliness among BOAs as presented in the global literature. Methods/Design: We will follow the five steps of Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework to search multiple databases from inception till June 2021. MeSH terms and keywords, e.g., “older adults,” “blacks,” and “loneliness,” will be adopted for several databases, including CINHAL, Ageline, PsychINFO, Cochrane Central Registers of Control Trials, PubMed, Web of Science, Social Science . Multiple reviewers will independently screen citations (title/abstract and full text) a...

Aristotle's Ethics Eudemia (EE) and Ethica Nicomachea (EN), as is well known, contain three books in common (EE 4-6 = EN 5-7). The text of these books as found in EE mss. however is little known.(1) Happily a collation of them in several mss. was published by Walter Ashburner early in the 1900s.(2) These collations are the more valuable because taken from (among others) the one ms. that in the learned stemma of Dieter Harlfinger(3) appears as the archetype for all the rest. The following translation of these Common Books is of the text as reported by Ashburner with footnotes drawing attention to differences between the EN and EE versions. Many of these differences are of little consequence; others are not. A discussion of some of the more significant ones can be found in my article: "Aristotle's EE: the Text and Character of the Common Books as found in EE mss." Classical Quarterly, 2019, volume 69, pp. 1-15. The translation of Book Four begins on page 2; of Book Five on p.25, and of Book Six on p.41. Note that the headings, subheadings, and summaries are additions by the translator meant to aid the reader. They are not part of the Greek or the translation proper.