Is Being Home Alone Bad for Your Health? Findings from Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (ONS LS)

Jitka Pikhartova, University College London
Nicola Shelton, UCL
Emily Murray, University of Essex

Previous studies, utilising smaller samples, reported that living alone (LA) may increase risk of poor self-rated health (SRH), morbidity and mortality, and that socioeconomic and demographic characteristics may play a role in the association. Our aim is to explore the strength of the association between LA, SRH and mortality in large population sample from England and Wales, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. ONS LS is a unique study containing individual-level Census information for 1% of population, linked to other administrative and event data, since 1971. Sample of almost 400,000 individuals used data from 2001 and 2011 Censuses (mean age 43.3 in 2001; 48% of males) and has been analysed by multinomial regression analysis. In crude analyses, those LA were 1.83 and 2.34-times more likely to report poor SRH in 2001 and 2011, respectively. Magnitude of the associations decreased but remained significant after adjustment for available sociodemographic characteristics and health limitations, with those LA being by 13% and 19% more likely to report poor SRH than those living with someone. In conclusion, living alone negatively affects self-rated health even when controlled for other available factors. Project findings will be used by policymakers to develop programmes suitable for persons living alone.

Keywords: Census data, Older Adults and Intergenerational Relations, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Health and Morbidity

See extended abstract.