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Urgent strategies are needed to alleviate loneliness in nursing homes, with attention to the experiences of residents living with cognitive and sensory impairments
  1. Jasmine C Mah,
  2. Melissa Kathryn Andrew
  1. Medicine (Geriatrics), Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Melissa Kathryn Andrew; mandrew{at}dal.ca

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Commentary on: Zhang D, Lu Q, Li L, Wang X, Yan H, Sun Z. Loneliness in nursing homes: A qualitative meta-synthesis of older people’s experiences. J Clin Nurs. 2023 Oct;32(19-20):7062-7075. doi: 10.1111/jocn.16842. Epub 2023 Aug 21.

Implications for practice and research

  • Loneliness has important impacts on the well-being of nursing home residents and is deserving of further study and action.

  • Specific attention to the experiences of nursing home residents living with cognitive and/or sensory impairments is needed.

Context

Loneliness is an important determinant of health and well-being. Its health impacts, estimated to be equivalent to daily smoking, have prompted national and international responses, including the World Health Organization’s commission of Social Connection as part of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing, and appointment of Ministers of Loneliness in Japan and the UK.1 Despite heightened public awareness of loneliness among older adults living in nursing …

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Footnotes

  • Funding JCM and MKA are affiliated with and supported by the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (https://ccna-ccnv.ca).

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.