Social Science Research/Loneliness and Social Support for Older Adults

Social Science Research Loneliness and Social Support for Older Adults Causes of Depression Predicting Violence Against Women On Zenodo, the project "Aging, Loneliness, and Well-Being in Spain" (https://zenodo.org/records/14200089) contains a dataset in SAV and CSV format, created by Esteban Sánchez-Moreno of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, funded by the State Research Agency. The dataset contains 887 interviews with older adults between the ages of 65 and 103, regarding their possible loneliness and the social support they receive from partners, sons, daughters, grandchildren, siblings, and neighbors. Sánchez-Moreno, E. (2024). Dataset corresponding to the project "Aging, loneliness, and well-being in Spain" [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14200089 Variable Descriptions First, in R, we obtain the variable descriptions using the sav file and transform it by replacing the numbers with strings: library(haven) df<-read_sav("Data_PID2020-115993RB-I00.sav") for (i in 1:56) { print(paste(names(df)[i],"-",attributes(df[,i])$label)) } df <- as_factor (df) "Gender - Gender" "Age - Age" "Living - Coexistence/Place of Residence" "Children - Children" "Education - Level of Education" "GALI - Limitations on Activities for Health Reasons" "VAR00002 - SOCIAL SUPPORT" "B1.4 - Questions about couples. To what extent could you freely share and express your feelings with your spouse/partner? " "B1.5 - Questions about couples. To what extent would your spouse/partner help you if you were depressed or having personal problems?" "B1.6 - Questions about your relationship. To what extent would your spouse/partner help you if you had to make an important decision?" "B1.7 - Questions about couples. To what extent would they be helpful if you needed advice or helpful suggestions to solve problems?" "B1.8 - Questions about your partner. To what extent would your spouse/partner help you if you were sick or needed a ride to the doctor?" "B1.9 - Questions about couples. To what extent would your spouse/partner help you if you needed money or cleaning services?" household chores" "B2.4 - Relationship with your child. The extent to which you could freely share and express your feelings with your child(ren)" "B2.5 - Relationship with your child(ren). The extent to which your child(ren) would help you if you were depressed or having personal problems" "B2.6 - Relationship with your children. The extent to which your child(ren) would be helpful if you had to make an important decision" "B2.7 - Relationship with your child. The extent to which your child(ren) would be helpful if you needed advice or helpful suggestions for solving problems" "B2.8 - Relationship with your child(ren). The extent to which your child(ren) would help you if you were sick and needed to be taken to the doctor" "B2.9 - Relationship with your child(ren). The extent to which your child(ren) would help you if you needed money or housework" "B3.4 - Relationship with your daughter(s). The extent to which you could freely share and express your feelings Feelings with your daughter(s) "B3.5 - Relationship between daughters. Extent to which your daughter(s) would help you if you were depressed or having personal problems" "B3.6 - Relationship between daughters. Extent to which your daughter(s) would be helpful if you had to make an important decision" "B3.7 - Relationship between daughters. Extent to which your daughter(s) would be helpful if you needed advice or helpful suggestions for solving problems" "B3.8 - Relationship between daughters. Extent to which your daughter(s) would help you if you were sick and needed to go to the doctor" "B3.9 - Relationship between daughters. Extent: Would your daughter(s) help you if you needed money or to take care of the house?" "B4.4 - Relationship with grandchild(ren). The extent to which you could freely share and express your feelings with your grandchild(ren)" "B4.5 - Relationship with grandchild(ren). The extent to which your grandchild(ren) would help you if you were depressed or having personal problems" "B4.6 - Relationship with grandchild(ren). The extent to which your grandchild(ren) would be helpful if you had to make an important decision" "B4.7 - Relationship with grandchild(ren). The extent to which your grandchild(ren) would be helpful if you needed advice or helpful suggestions for solving problems" "B4.8 - Relationship with grandchild(ren). The extent to which your grandchild(ren) would help you if you were sick and needed to be taken to the doctor" "B4.9 - Relationship with grandchild(ren). The extent to which your grandchild(ren) Your nephew/nieces would help you if you needed money or to take care of your house. B5.4 - Sibling relationship. Extent to which you could freely share and express your feelings with your sibling. B5.5 - Sibling relationship. Extent to which your sibling/nieces would help you if you needed money or to take care of your house.Your brother/sister would help you if you were depressed or having personal problems. "B5.6 - Sibling Relationship. The extent to which your brother/sister would be helpful if you had to make an important decision." "B5.7 - Sibling Relationship. The extent to which your brother/sister would be helpful if you needed advice or helpful suggestions for solving problems." "B5.8 - Sibling Relationship. The extent to which your brother/sister would help you if you were sick and needed to go to the doctor." "B5.9 - Sibling Relationship. The extent to which your brother/sister would help you if you needed money or household chores." "B6.4 - Relationship with Neighbors/Other Residents. The extent to which you could freely share and express your feelings with your neighbors/other residents." "B6.5 - Relationship with Neighbors/Other Residents. Extent to which your neighbors/other residents would help you if you were depressed or had personal problems. "B6.6 - Relationship with neighbors/other residents. Extent to which your neighbors/other residents would be helpful if you had to make an important decision." "B6.7 - Relationship with neighbors/other residents. Extent to which your neighbors/other residents would be helpful if you needed advice or helpful suggestions for solving problems." "B6.8 - Relationship with neighbors/other residents. Extent to which your neighbors/other residents would help you if you were sick or needed a ride to the doctor." "B6.9 - Relationship with neighbors/other residents. Extent to which your neighbors/other residents would help you if you needed money or housework." "B7.4 - Relationship with friends. Extent to which you could freely share and express your feelings with your friends." "B7.5 - Relationship with friends. Extent to which your friends would help you if you were depressed or having personal problems. "B7.6 - Relationship with friends. Extent to which your friends would help you if you had to make an important decision." "B7.7 - Relationship with friends. Extent to which your friends would be helpful if you needed advice or helpful suggestions for solving problems." "B7.8 - Relationship with friends. Extent to which your friends would help you if you were sick or needed a ride to the doctor." "B7.9 - Relationship with friends. Measure: Your friends would help you if you needed money or to take care of your home. VAR00001 - LONELINESS Soledad1 - 1 I have a general feeling of emptiness. Soledad2 - 2 There are many people I can count on when I have problems. Soledad3 - 3 There are enough people I feel connected to. Soledad4 - 4 I miss having people around me. Soledad5 - 5 I often feel rejected. Soledad6 - 6 There are many people I can trust completely. Loneliness Regarding loneliness, the average problem experienced by the elderly in the Spanish sample is having people around them (47% would like them more or less, 52.54% would like them, but not having people to whom they can feel connected or people they can trust concerns a minority (6.76% and 10.16% respectively). 12.97%). Soledad3 - 3 Are there enough people I feel connected to? library(dplyr) n=nrow(elderly) elderly %>% group_by(Soledad3) %>% summarise(there_are_people_I_feel_connected_to=n(), percentage=paste(round(people_I_feel_connected_to*100/n,2),"%",sep = "")) Soledad3 there_are_people_I_feel_connected_to percentage 1 N / A 6 0.68% 2 NO 60 6.76% 3 More or less 90 10.15% 4 Yes 731 82.41% Soledad4 - 4 Do I miss having people around me? Soledad4 I_miss_having_people_around_me percentage 1 N / A 7 0.79% 2 NO 466 52.54% 3 More or less 135 15.22% 4 Yes 279 31.45% Soledad6 - 6 Are there many people I can completely trust? Soledad6 people_I_can_completely_trust percentage 1 N / A 7 0.79% 2 NO 115 12.97% 3 More or less 174 19.62% 4 Yes 591 66.63% Social Support thumb|upright=1.8 Analyzing the question "To what extent would they help you if you were sick or needed a ride to the doctor?", we obtain by looking at the graph and analyzing the numbers that the elderly in the Spanish sample can rely mainly on p in the event of illness.partner (35.96% almost always), sons (38.11% almost always), and daughters (40.81% almost always), while for siblings and nieces, it's similar but with lower percentages, for neighbors, it's never (32.24%), and for friends, it's similar to nieces and nephews but with a never rate of 25.25%. library(dplyr) library(ggplot2) library(reshape2) df<-elderly %>% select(Gender,B1.8,B2.8,B3.8,B4.8,B5.8,B6.8,B7.8) colnames(df)[2:8] <-c("Partner","Sons","Daughters","Grandchildren","Siblings","Neighbors","Friends") df1 <- melt(df, id="Gender") df2<-df1 %>% filter(value=="Almost always") %>% group_by(variable) %>% summarise(almost_always=n()) df3<-df1 %>% filter(value=="Quite a few times") %>% group_by(variable) %>% summarise(quite a few times=n()) df2 <- cbind(df2,quite a few times=df3$quite a few times) df3<-df1 %>% filter(value=="Sometimes") %>% group_by(variable) %>% summarise(sometimes=n()) df2 <- cbind(df2,sometimes=df3$sometimes) df3<-df1 %>% filter(value=="Rarely") %>% group_by(variable) %>% summarise(rarely=n()) df2 <- cbind(df2,rarely=df3$rarely) df3<-df1 %>% filter(value=="Never") %>% group_by(variable) %>% summarise(mai=n()) df2 <- cbind(df2,mai=df3$mai) colnames(df2)[1] <-"Type" df3 <- melt(df2, id="Type") df3 %>% ggplot(aes(Type,value,fill=variable))+ geom_bar(stat = "identity", position = position_dodge())+ ylab("Total Elderly")+ ggtitle("How much would they help you", subtitle = "if you were sick or needed a ride to the doctor?") df4<-cbind(df2$Type, round(df2[,2:6]*100/n,2)) colnames(df4)[1] <-"Type" df4 Type almost_always quite_a_few_times sometimes rarely never 1 Partner 35.96 2.25 0.68 1.69 2.37 2 Sons 38.11 9.58 4.96 3.83 3.72 3 Daughters 40.81 8.91 3.27 3.38 1.92 4 Grandchildren 12.51 6.76 4.96 7.33 9.81 5 Brothers/Sisters 16.80 12.29 11.05 11.16 15.33 6 Neighbors 8.57 10.15 19.28 16.80 32.24 7 Friends 14.77 18.49 15.78 12.18 25.25 Similar results are obtained for the questions: To what extent would they help you if you were depressed or had personal problems? To what extent would they help you if you needed money or housework?