Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 17, 2025
06:52
Assessment of Dependence in Activities of Daily Living Among Older Patients in an Acute Care Unit
Published on: September 30, 2020
9.6K
Understanding patterns of loneliness in older long-term care users using natural language processing with free text
Sam Rickman1, Jose-Luis Fernandez1, Juliette Malley1
1Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, The London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom.
Plos One
|April 2, 2025
Summary
New natural language processing (NLP) models accurately identify loneliness and social isolation in older adults
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Computer Science
- Public Health
Background:
- Loneliness and social isolation are significant concerns for older adults, impacting well-being and mortality.
- Existing data on these issues within publicly funded long-term care settings is limited.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) offers novel methods for analyzing unstructured text data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate an NLP-based method for identifying loneliness and social isolation in administrative case notes of older adults.
- To assess the prevalence of loneliness and social isolation in a long-term care population using this new method.
- To explore the utility of this NLP measure in understanding service use and care needs.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 1.1 million free-text case notes from 3,046 older adults in London (2008-2020).
- Application of three NLP techniques: document-term matrices, pre-trained embeddings, and transformer-based models.
- Validation of the best-performing bidirectional transformer model using F1 scores, survey data, and literature comparisons.
Main Results:
- The bidirectional transformer model achieved a high F1 score of 0.92, demonstrating strong performance in identifying loneliness and isolation.
- Approximately 43% of individuals had case notes indicating loneliness or isolation at initial assessment, aligning with survey estimates.
- The NLP-derived measure showed construct validity, correlating with factors like living alone and impaired memory, and predicting social inclusion service use.
Conclusions:
- NLP provides a robust and scalable method for detecting loneliness and social isolation in administrative health records.
- This approach overcomes limitations of traditional surveys by linking textual data to other administrative information.
- The open-source model facilitates further research and development of targeted interventions for vulnerable older adults.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:29Documentation in Long-Term and Home Healthcare Setting
837
Documentation in long-term care facilities and home healthcare settings is crucial for ensuring continuous, coordinated, and comprehensive care for patients. Each setting has its specific documentation processes and tools:
Long-Term Care Facilities
Long-Term Care Facilities
837
02:12Relationship Formation
39.5K
What do you think is the single most influential factor in determining with whom you become friends and whom you form romantic relationships? You might be surprised to learn that the answer is simple: the people with whom you have the most contact. This most important factor is proximity. You are more likely to be friends with people you have regular contact with. For example, there are decades of research that shows that you are more likely to become friends with people who live in your dorm,...
39.5K
01:28Current Trends in Nursing I
1.4K
Current trends in nursing include:
1.4K
02:20Longitudinal Research
11.8K
Sometimes we want to see how people change over time, as in studies of human development and lifespan. When we test the same group of individuals repeatedly over an extended period of time, we are conducting longitudinal research. Longitudinal research is a research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time. For example, we may survey a group of individuals about their dietary habits at age 20, retest them a decade later at age 30, and then again...
11.8K
01:25Continuing Care
1.4K
Continuing care describes the variety of health, personal, and social services provided over a prolonged period. The need for continuing care is increasing because people are living longer. Many people do not have families or others to care for them. Continuing care is mainly for patients who are disabled, functionally dependent, or suffering from a terminal disease. It is available within institutional settings or in homes. Examples include nursing centers or facilities, assisted living,...
1.4K
01:26Aging
32
Aging is a complex biological phenomenon influenced by various processes that affect cellular and systemic functions. Several prominent theories attempt to explain its mechanisms, highlighting cellular limitations, oxidative damage, and hormonal changes as central factors in aging.
Cellular Clock Theory
The cellular clock theory posits that the human lifespan is closely tied to the finite capacity of cells to divide, a phenomenon governed by telomeres, which are protective caps at the ends of...
Cellular Clock Theory
The cellular clock theory posits that the human lifespan is closely tied to the finite capacity of cells to divide, a phenomenon governed by telomeres, which are protective caps at the ends of...
32