Older Adults’ Loneliness and Social Relationships in the Philippines: Comparison Between Rural and Urban Contexts

Abstract

This study compared patterns of association between social relationship measures and levels of loneliness for rural and urban older adults in the Philippines. We analyzed social relationship measures and loneliness scores (UCLA Three-Item Loneliness Scale) of a nationally representative sample of Filipino adults 60 years and older in the baseline survey of the 2018 Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health in the Philippines (LSAHP) (n=4,704). The loneliness score was slightly higher for rural older adults (5.8) than for their urban counterparts (5.1; p=.0001). A significantly larger proportion of older adults in rural areas (12.7%) lived alone than in urban areas (5.4%; p=.0008). The overall pattern of association between social relationship measures and loneliness scores for the two groups was mostly similar. For both groups, living alone, having less active social involvement, and seeing friends less frequently were related to higher levels of loneliness. Poorer subjective financial well-being (e.g., the perception of considerable difficulty in making ends meet) was also significantly associated with higher loneliness scores. These findings suggest that the prevention of loneliness for older adults in countries in the early stages of population aging such as the Philippines requires a broad range of public health initiatives.