Table 1.
Variables (score range) | Coefficients | P‐values |
---|---|---|
Scale item 1: How often do you feel that you lack companionship? (1–3) | 0.85† | <0.001 |
Scale item 2: How often do you feel left out? (1–3) | 0.89† | <0.001 |
Scale item 3: How often do you feel isolated from others? (1–3) | 0.89† | <0.001 |
Geriatric Depression Scale (0–15) | 0.58‡ | <0.001 |
Self‐rated health (1–4) | −0.29‡ | <0.001 |
Emotional support (received) (0–1) | −0.29‡ | <0.001 |
Emotional support (provided) (0–1) | −0.22‡ | <0.001 |
Instrumental support (received) (0–1) | −0.20‡ | <0.001 |
Instrumental support (provided) (0–1) | −0.23‡ | <0.001 |
Living alone (0–1) | −0.03‡ | 0.494 |
Monthly face‐to‐face contact with children and relatives (0–1) | −0.02‡ | 0.608 |
Monthly non‐face‐to‐face contact with children and relatives (0–1)§ | −0.15‡ | 0.001 |
Monthly face‐to‐face contact with friends (0–1) | −0.28‡ | <0.001 |
Monthly non‐face‐to‐face contact with friends (0–1)§ | −0.30‡ | <0.001 |
Pearson's correlation coefficients show item‐total correlations of the three‐item loneliness scale.
Spearman's correlation coefficients, used following the previous validation study,4 show the associations between the three‐item loneliness scale and related variables.
Non‐face‐to‐face contacts are those carried out by phone, letter, email and so on.