Table 3. Association between loneliness, and health behaviours and outcomes estimated by multivariate logistic regression.
| Armenia | Azerbaijan | Belarus | Georgia | Kazakhstan | Kyrgyzstan | Moldova | Russia | Ukraine | ||
| Adj. OR | Adj. OR | Adj. OR | Adj. OR | Adj. OR | Adj. OR | Adj. OR | Adj. OR | Adj. OR | ||
| Outcome | Loneliness# | (95%CI) | (95%CI) | (95%CI) | (95%CI) | (95%CI) | (95%CI) | (95%CI) | (95%CI) | (95%CI) |
| Health behaviour † | ||||||||||
| Alcohol consumption | N | 1393 | 1646 | 1674 | 1994 | 1693 | 1723 | 1661 | 2546 | 1755 |
| No | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | |
| Yes | 0.89 (0.58–1.35) | 0.61 (0.21–1.78) | 0.90 (0.54–1.48) | 0.80 (0.55–1.15) | 1.10 (0.66–1.85) | 1.64 (1.07–2.50) a | 0.69 (0.47–1.00) | 1.01 (0.69–1.47) | 0.95 (0.63–1.43) | |
| Heavy episodic drinking | N | 1605 | 1532 | 1677 | 1998 | 1695 | 1723 | 1667 | 2553 | 1771 |
| No | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | |
| Yes | 2.53 (1.26–5.10)b | 2.57 (0.65–10.21) | 0.95 (0.49–1.85) | 1.02 (0.46–2.27) | 1.50 (0.81–2.77) | 1.48 (0.68–3.25) | 0.41 (0.17–0.97) a | 1.28 (0.76–2.17) | 1.35 (0.72–2.54) | |
| Problem drinking | N | 1563 | 674 | 1639 | 1973 | 1447 | 1683 | 1610 | 2409 | 1685 |
| No | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | |
| Yes | 1.16 (0.63–2.12) | 1.30 (0.33–5.06) | 1.48 (0.87–2.53) | 1.85 (0.96–3.56) | 1.55 (0.80–3.03) | 2.80 (1.61–4.86)c | 1.06 (0.69–1.62) | 1.72 (1.07–2.75) a | 1.48 (0.81–2.70) | |
| Smoking | N | 1605 | 1650 | 1677 | 1998 | 1694 | 1723 | 1667 | 2549 | 1768 |
| No | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | |
| Yes | 1.02 (0.60–1.75) | 1.03 (0.39–2.77) | 0.99 (0.60–1.66) | 1.34 (0.81–2.21) | 1.32 (0.73–2.39) | 2.29 (1.36–3.86)b | 0.64 (0.40–1.03) | 1.10 (0.72–1.69) | 1.13 (0.68–1.87) | |
| Health outcome ‡ | ||||||||||
| Poor self-rated health | N | 1604 | 1650 | 1677 | 1994 | 1695 | 1723 | 1656 | 2540 | 1764 |
| No | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | |
| Yes | 2.25 (1.37–3.71)b | 2.43 (1.27–4.65)b | 3.02 (1.80–5.06)c | 1.92 (1.29–2.86)b | 1.80 (0.93–3.48) | 2.34 (1.37–3.99)b | 0.89 (0.59–1.34) | 2.43 (1.60–3.69)c | 1.77 (1.14–2.76) a | |
| Psychological distress | N | 1515 | 1574 | 1571 | 1939 | 1626 | 1691 | 1559 | 2351 | 1620 |
| No | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | |
| Yes | 1.88 (1.21–2.92)b | 3.42 (1.85–6.31)c | 4.38 (2.79–6.88)c | 3.58 (2.46–5.21)c | 3.10 (1.84–5.25)c | 2.63 (1.69–4.09)c | 1.98 (1.39–2.81)c | 2.61 (1.78–3.84)c | 3.41 (2.22–5.25)c |
Adjusted for sex, age, marital status, education, location, household size, physical activity difficulty, locus of control, wealth, social support, and death of close relative.
Loneliness was assessed by the question ‘How often do you feel lonely?’ and those who answered ‘Often’ were coded as 1 and ‘Sometimes/Rarely/Never’ as 0.
Alcohol consumption was based on the question ‘How often do you consume alcoholic drinks of any type?’ with 8 main response categories ranging from ‘Every day’ to ‘Never’. Those who did not respond ‘Never’ were categorised as alcohol consumers. Heavy episodic drinking was usual consumption of at least one of the following on one occasion: ≥200 g of strong spirits (e.g. vodka), ≥2 litres of beer, ≥750 g of industrially produced wine/champagne. CAGE problem drinking was based on 4 questions: Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking?; Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking?; Have you ever felt bad or guilty about your drinking?; Have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hangover (eye opener)? Answers to these questions were coded as 1 (yes) and 0 (no) and added to create a scale ranging from 0 to 4. Those who scored ≥2 on this scale were CAGE problem drinkers. Smoking referred to answering ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Do you smoke at least one cigarette (papirossi, pipe, cigar) per day?’.
Poor self-rated health was claiming to have poor or very poor health in general. Psychological distress was assessed by a composite score based on 11 questions (refer to text for details) and referred to those with the highest quintile of scores.
P<0.05, b P<0.01, c P<0.001.