Awareness of the social life and loneliness of the elderly and and their evaluation in family medicine

Aim: The proportion of elderly population in the world and in our country is increasing over the years. One of the important issues on the agenda with aging is social isolation and the feeling of loneliness. Sensation of loneliness is a condition that negatively affects mental and physical health and can become an important problem in old age. Social isolation and loneliness affect quality of life, management of chronic diseases, morbidity and mortality. This effect is similar to other known risk factors such as smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity and hypertension. Psychosocial status, behaviors and cognitive levels of patients are expected to be understood in the primare care medicine. In this context, it is important for family physicians to recognize social isolation and loneliness in elderly patients. The aim of this study is to make the elderly patients aware of their social relationships and feelings of loneliness, and the awareness of the family physicians about this issue. Thus, it is aimed to create awareness about this issue in Turkey. Materials and Methods: In the current family medicine unit, which was active in the family medicine system and previously received verbal consent, it was carried out in 5 different family medicine units working for at least 6 months. The G power statistics program was used for sampling over the age of 65 years. For each family physician, 40 individuals over the age of 65 were calculated based on 80% power. Inclusion criteria for individuals over 65 years of age; The aim of the study was to have no cognitive impairment, like Alzheimer / Dementia, and no psychiatric diagnosis. A questionnaire consisting of 6 questions was developed by the researchers to measure the awareness of the elderly patients about social isolation and loneliness. A questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic data form, UCLA loneliness scale, Nottinghom social isolation subscale, and a questionnaire consisting of 5 questions which are used to measure the awareness of individuals about social isolation and loneliness are applied. Results: The loneliness level of the patients was determined to be affected by educational level (p = 0.002), economic status (p = 0.038), presence of chronic disease (p = 0.000) and disability (p = 0.023). The social relationships were also affected by the level of education (p = 0.008), the economic situation (p = 0.003) and with whom they lived (p = 0.043). The social isolation status of the patients was also affected by their visits (p = 0.000) and visits by their relatives (p = 0.000). With the scores obtained from UCLA-LS, the level of education (r = -0,207) and decreasing with the presence of chronic disease (r = -0,198) were correlated with the disability status (r = 0,208). The scores obtained from the NSP-SI decreased with the education level (r = -0,194) and the disability status (r = 0,151) was increasingly correlated. Family physicians were able to know the patients living alone (p = 0.035) and their marital status (p = 0.000). Conclusion: When the results of our study were compared with the literature, it was found out that the social isolation status was related to the education level, economic status and with whom; and loneliness was affected by education level, economic status, presence of chronic disease and disability. It was evaluated that the family physicians had a high knowledge of who their patients were living with, but in general they did not know whether they felt alone or not. In order to recognize and intervene in the loneliness and social isolation of elderly patients, more patient-numbered and long-term studies are needed.