Identifying Loneliness and Social Isolation in Care Home Residents with Sight Loss: Lessons from Using the De Jong Gierveld Scale

• Main Authors: Rachel Mann, Parvaneh Rabiee, Yvonne Birks, Mark Wilberforce
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: LSE Press 2020-11-01
• Series: Journal of Long-Term Care
• Subjects: loneliness; social isolation; sight loss; care homes; older people
• Online Access: https://journal.ilpnetwork.org/articles/39

<p><strong>Context:</strong> Experience of loneliness amongst care home residents with sight loss is associated with limitations in activities of daily living, poor self-reported health, and increased rates of depression. Care homes are encouraged to use screening tools to identify those at risk of loneliness.</p><p><strong>Objectives:</strong> The study aimed to describe the findings and experience of applying a validated, multi-item scale to identify loneliness and isolation in care home residents with sight loss in England, UK.</p><p><strong>Methods:</strong> The six-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale was administered to residents residing in long-term care homes with sight loss. Participants were aged 65+ years old with vision impairment that could not be corrected by glasses. Descriptive analysis of loneliness scale data was undertaken supplemented with observational field notes of implementation challenges.</p><p><strong>Findings:</strong> Only 42 applications of the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale were possible. The mean sub-scale scores for emotional loneliness, social loneliness and the mean overall loneliness score were 1.36 (sd = 1.16), 1.19 (sd = 1.04) and 2.55 (sd = 1.9) respectively. Challenges observed in scale administration and understanding of scale items by residents might preclude it as a loneliness case-identification tool in busy care home environments.</p><p><strong>Limitations:</strong> The study reports on the challenges implementing a questionnaire which achieved a low rate of data collection.</p><p><strong>Implications:</strong> For case-identification of loneliness, care homes may wish to consider use of a single-item loneliness question rather than multi-item scales due to variable length of administration and resident comprehension.</p>