Influence of Loneliness on Cognitive Decline among Elderly Living Alone in Korea: One Year Prospective Study

BACKGROUND: Dementia is the most important factor affecting everyday life of the elderly and there have been studies on the relationship between dementia and social withdrawal or loneliness. However, there is a lack of investigations on the relationship between loneliness and cognitive function in the elderly living alone. METHODS: Ninety five community-dwelling elderly people registered to Sungbook elderly welfare center in Seoul, who were living alone, were enrolled in the study. Personal visits by three pre-trained researchers were made during April 2006. One year later, 11 elderly dropped out, and 84 elderly were interviewed in the same way. They were interviewed based on loneliness scale, social support, Hasegawa dementia scale, instrumental activities of daily living, and depression. RESULTS: The mean age of the subjects was 78.3 years. Most of them were women (90.5%) and education level was low (no schooling in 69%). The loneliness scale did not change much during one year (P=0.63), but the instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) score had worsened from 10.5 to 11.2 (P=0.002) The mean Hasegawa dementia scale score decreased from 23.2 to 21.0 during one year (P<0.001). Multivariate regression analysis for the one-year difference in Hasegawa Dementia Scale revealed loneliness was a significant factor after adjusting for age, the level of education, social support, IADL score, and depression (regression coefficient=-0.712, P=0.02). CONCLUSION: Loneliness was associated with a decline in cognitive function in the elderly people living alone. In contrast, social withdrawal and depression had no effect on changes of cognitive function during one year.

Relationship of Helicobacter pylori Infection with Appetite

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that H.pylori causes changes in fundic leptin levels and plasma levels of ghrelin, and that eradication of H.pylori infection can increase appetite. There is also a report that showed changes of appetite between before and after eradication of H.pylori in peritoneal dialysis patients. Our study investigated the degree of appetite between H.pylori negative group and H.pylori positive group in adults. METHODS: The subjects included those without appetite- related diseases. We carried out gastroscopy and then performed CLO test in subjects who had no gastric lesions. We interviewed the study subjects about appetite related behavior (three items: desire to eat, hunger before meal, deliciousness) using visual analogue scale. We examined the appetite related behavior between CLO (??) group and CLO (+) group. RESULTS: The difference of age, sex, height, weight, body mass index, alcohol con sumption, blood pressure, hemoglobin, fasting blood sugar, AST, ALT, GGT between CLO (??) group and CLO (+) group were not statistically significant. The difference of appetite related behavior (three items) between CLO (??) group and CLO (+) group was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The degree of appetite between CLO (??) group and CLO (+) group was not different.

Loneliness and Cognitive Function in the Elderly Living Alone: Cross-sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Many foreign researchs show that physical illness and loneliness are causes of cognitive decline in old men. Especially, living alone group feels more depressive mood and loneliness than married group. Neverthe- less, there is no domestic research whether loneliness is associated with cognitive decline. METHOD: We have interviewed 95 elderly, living alone, who are supported by an elderly wellfare office of Seoul city. Educated three interviewers investigated sociodemographic characteristics, loneliness scale, dementia scale, instru- mental activity of daily living, and depression scale. RESULTS: The subjects were almost women(90.5%), low educated(no schooling; 67.4%), low economic status(income < 600,000 won/month; 97%) and had moderate-high degree loneliness(UCLA lonliness scale 49.8), mild depression (GDSSF-K score; 7.8). In a multiple regression analysis, there was no correlation between the loneliness and cognitive function(p=.878), no association between social disengagement index and cognitive function(p=.817). However, age (p=0.005), education(p=0.000), smoking(p=0.045) had statistical correlation with cognitive function. CONCLUSION: In living alone elderly, the cognitive function is not associated with loneliness and social support, but associated with age, education, smoking.