Study of loneliness and wisdom in 482 middle-aged and oldest-old adults: a comparison between people in Cilento, Italy and San Diego, USA

Dilip V. Jeste · Salvatore Di Somma · Ellen Lee · Tanya T. Nguyen · Mara Scalcione · Alice Biaggi +7 more

38 citations0/0 files storedAging & Mental Health

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Aging and Gerontology Research Aging, Health, and Disability Health disparities and outcomes

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: There has been growing research interest in loneliness and wisdom in recent decades, but no cross-cultural comparisons of these constructs using standardized rating measures in older adults, especially the oldest-old. This was a cross-sectional study of loneliness and wisdom comparing middle-aged and oldest-old adults in Cilento, Italy and San Diego, United States. METHOD: = 138 and 85, respectively). RESULTS: After controlling for education, there were no significant group differences in levels of loneliness, while on SD-WISE the Cilento ≥90 group had lower scores compared to the other three groups. There was a strong inverse correlation between loneliness and wisdom in each of the four subject groups. Loneliness was negatively associated while wisdom was positively associated with general health, sleep quality, and happiness in most groups, with varying levels of significance. CONCLUSION: These results largely support cross-cultural validity of the constructs of loneliness and wisdom, and extend previous findings of strong inverse correlations between these two entities. Loneliness has become a growing public health problem, and the results of our study suggest that wisdom could be a protective factor against loneliness, although alternative explanations are also possible. Research on interventions to reduce loneliness by enhancing wisdom in older adults is needed.

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References

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2021Compassion toward others and self-compassion predict mental and physical well-being: a 5-year longitudinal study of 1090 community-dwelling adults across the lifespan 2021Cognitive and Neural Correlates of Loneliness and Wisdom during Emotional Bias 2020Is spirituality a component of wisdom? Study of 1,786 adults using expanded San Diego Wisdom Scale (Jeste-Thomas Wisdom Index)2022Remotely Administered Resilience- and Wisdom-Focused Intervention to Reduce Perceived Stress and Loneliness: Pilot Controlled Clinical Trial in Older Adults

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