Loneliness Factors in Aging Veterans and Civilians: A Comparative Study

Loneliness among older adults is a significant public health concern. There is a critical need to develop effective, tailored strategies to combat loneliness that accounts for the diverse nature of older adult populations, including those with unique life experiences, such as Veterans. In order to develop and implement these strategies and meet the specific needs of the diverse older population, the research field requires a comprehensive understanding of the various factors that contribute to loneliness across different subgroups of older adults, including Veterans and civilians. In this study, we aimed to address this research gap by investigating and comparing characteristics associated with loneliness among both older Veterans and civilians.

In this cross-sectional exploratory study, we used data from the RAND Health and Retirement Study Longitudinal File 2020, derived from the Health and Retirement Study and provided by the RAND Center for the Study of Aging (N = 5,259) to assess and compare characteristics associated with loneliness among older Veterans and civilians. We conducted logistic regression and moderation analyses to investigate associations between demographic, health, health behavior, and psychosocial factors and loneliness.

Our results showed significant positively associations between loneliness and being unmarried/unpartnered, greater depressive symptoms, and greater negative affect for both Veterans and civilians. Similarly, we found significant negative associations between loneliness and greater life satisfaction and positive affect for both subsamples. Our results showed that having health conditions that limit an individual's ability to work was a unique risk factor for loneliness among Veterans. Moderation analyses revealed that the positive association between being unmarried/unpartnered and loneliness and the negative association between rural residence and loneliness were significantly greater for Veterans, as compared to civilians.

Our findings suggest the importance of considering life course perspectives and developing targeted interventions to address loneliness among older adults, particularly Veterans. Future research should focus on longitudinal studies to investigate the effectiveness of such interventions, explore protective factors, and examine the impact of social interventions on reducing loneliness in these populations.