Loneliness among older adults in The Netherlands, Italy, and Canada: a multifaceted comparison.

Loneliness is experienced in many cultures. To properly assess cross-cultural differences, attention should be paid to the level, determinants, and measurement of loneliness. However, cross-cultural studies have rarely taken into account more than one of these.

Social isolation and loneliness: differences between older rural and urban Manitobans.

The purpose of this paper was to identify predictors of social isolation and loneliness for very old rural and urban adults. With data from the 1996 Aging in Manitoba Study (N = 1,868; age range 72-104), separate multiple regression models were constructed for rural and urban sub-samples, using the life space index (LSI) to measure social isolation as one outcome, and a loneliness index created by the authors from a combination of items to measure loneliness as a second outcome. Different factors were found to predict the outcomes for the two sub-samples.

Cross-national comparisons of social isolation and loneliness: introduction and overview.

This article provides an introduction to the special volume on research related to issues of social isolation and loneliness for older people. It discusses some key concepts and provides a brief overview of the articles included in the volume.